The Battle of the Scientists
by mkwong98
Summary: A GohanVidel story. Some loose ends from Cell game returned to get the Z fighters. Please R&R! Chapter 14 up!
1. Chapter 1

The Battle of the Scientists 

Disclaimer: I don't own any DBZ characters...

Chapter 1 - Stop bugging me!

.1

"Mom! See what I found in the forest!" Waving an object in his hand, Goten ran wildly into the kitchen. He knew entering the kitchen while his mother was cooking was a risky business. However the kid was too excited by this point to think about the odds.

"Goten, I'm busy cooking dinner and I don't have time now. Can you -"

The busy housewife turned around and saw the object in the little demi-Saiyan's hand. Immediately, her ki flare up and there was murder in her eyes. Noticing the changes, Goten went pale.

"Mom, this is different! This one is not alive! This one is-"

"GOTEN! HOW DARE YOU BRING A DEAD BUG INTO MY KITCHEN!"

Even though Gohan was studying (appeared to be) upstairs in his room, it didn't need the hearing of a Saiyan to know what was happening in the kitchen. At this point he held his breath, braced himself for the noise of the upcoming slaughter. However the expected "GONG!" of the frying pan was nowhere to be heard.

"Gohan, come down here. You better take a look at this...bug?"

.2

At the Lookout, Dende looked down and a look of great worry was on his face.

"Mr Popo, I don't know what's bugging me but I'm feeling uneasy."

"Oh dear, Kami felt the same when Cell came." Mr Popo replied.

A tall green figure walked out of the shadow in the back.

"Let's hope we don't need a Kami replacement this time. It will take a while to reach Namek with a space ship." No one was sure whether Piccolo was serious when he said it.

"I don't think the Guardian of Earth must be a Namekian"  
"Dende, what are you trying to say?"

"I have a feeling that we rely too much on the dragonballs."

"I know. Not only the dragonballs, we rely too much on the Saiyans also. However until the humans can handle their power without destroying the world, we have to rely on those."

"Sometimes I wonder if it is correct to hide the truth from the humans."

"I think this is the best option for now."

"Piccolo, humans are simply amazing. They are far from perfect but they are as talented in science as the Saiyans are talented in fighting. Think about how much progress can be made if the android technology is released to everyone. It hurts greatly to see that they are not fulfilling their true potential."

"Yes, but they are equally talented at being arrogant and ignorant as well. It took the combined effort of the Saiyans and the dragonballs to stop the androids."

"Don't forget Bulma's time machine played an important role in the whole event as well. Now we have all 3 core power sources of the universe to protect Earth. Ki in Saiyans, magic in dragon balls and science in android technology. I can't wait to see the next generation pushing the power even higher."

"Dende, actually I have high hopes for the human/Saiyan kids. They have the best chance at unifying ki and science. Dr Gero was too selfish. So he walked the wrong path when he created Cell. And Bulma..." Piccolo shuddered as he recalled Bulma's attempt at unifying science and magic by growing genetically modified sensu bean.

"I'm sure the result of the true unification will benefit the whole universe."

"Don't get too excited. It will be years before that can come true. Meanwhile, I have a feeling that magic will play a major role in the near future. Humans have little magic capability and full Saiyans cannot use magic at all. If the need arises, we are the only one who can fight magic with magic. So we must work harder to improve our magic. Adding another wish to the dragon balls won't be enough to save the day."

"Yes, Piccolo!" Dende's mood brightened up as he realized that he might make a difference in the next fight. Unfortunately for him, he didn't expect the next fight to be just a few months away. (referring to Buu)

.3

"This is serious. I must show this to Bulma immediately."

"But Gohan, you need to stay and study for the examination coming up tomorrow. Not to mention you will miss your dinner if you go now."

"Mom, this is far more important! If we don't act quickly, the whole world will be at risk! Come on Mom, I promise I will come back and study as soon as possible." He showed the puppy dog eyes while he knew very well that Vegeta would keep him behind for a spar.

"Alright Gohan, you may go. But take your books with you, I'll call Bulma to let you stay overnight."

"Thank you! You are the greatest mom!" Gohan was very grateful of his mother's understanding and gave her a big hug. Then he ran back to his room quickly to pack up. Soon after, he was holding the bug in one hand and a school bag filled with books in another. After saying good-bye to Chichi and Goten, Gohan flew towards Capsule Corps at top speed.

"Mom, can I have brother's dinner?"

"GONG!" That was overdue.

.4

"What's that noise?" Videl stopped eating her dinner and went up to a window next to the dinning table and looked into the evening sky.

"That was a sonic boom." Mr Satan replied. But while super sonic flight was not uncommon in this era, there was a speed limit for aircrafts flying below a certain attitude over an urban area, so it was rare to hear one inside the city. "What ever it was, it will be far gone by now. May be it was the military."

Satisfied with his own answer, the man turned back to the dinner while the eyes were fixed onto the television.

Mr Satan noticed that his daughter hadn't yet returned to her seat.

"Videl, what's bugging you?"

"I can hear this grumbling sound in the background. The sound is... familiar. Where did I hear that before?"

"Tell you what, I'll call the military tomorrow."

"Dad, there is no need to bother them."

"Hey! If they disturbed my daughter or anyone in the city then they must apologize! After all, this city is named after me! And while I defeated Cell, they lost to Cell! And let me tell you..."

The girl remained silence, hoping her father would stop soon.

"Good evening, this is a special announcement from Capsule Corps. They apologize for any disturbance caused by the noise from one of their recent experiment. Now back to the head lines..." For most people in the city, this television announcement was enough to remove any trouble, yet Videl was not convinced. However, she was too busy dealing with the Great Saiyaman and the mysterious new comer Gohan to do anything about it.

Sadly her father wasn't paying attention to the announcement and he kept on for the remainder of the night.


	2. Chapter 2

The Battle of the Scientists

Disclaimer: DBZ is not mine!

Chapter 2 - Can you hear me?

.1

"Now we need to do something about your grumbling stomach."

"Yes Bulma, I'll grab some food from the kitchen."

"I'll order some pizza for you. The only food left in the kitchen is tomorrow's breakfast."

"Thanks Bulma. But I just don't understand. Why does the Saiyan stomach make such a loud grumbling? Since Saiyan is a warrior race, won't it ruin a stealth mission?"

"I don't know. You can ask Vegeta."

"I know what he will say: 'only cowards need to use stealth!' or 'if they couldn't find food and died then they deserved it!'"

"Brat, you are wrong," said Vegeta as he walked into the room. "A coward uses stealth to escape with his own life; a warrior uses stealth to improve the odd of success. However it just so happens that most Saiyans and other races do not know how toe suppress their ki and scouters are very common so-"

"That is enough, Vegeta. We don't have time for a lecture on Saiyan culture."

"But it is my responsibility to clear any misunderstanding. I'm the sole bearer of the Saiyan culture! I'm the Prince of all Saiyans!"

"Why don't you just record everything on a disk and we will watch it when we have time?"

Vegeta stared blankly for a few seconds. He actually liked the idea. Immediately, he walked out of the room.

"Vegeta! Come back here or you will get 'it' in your next meal!"

Gohan immediately felt the sharp disturbance in Vegeta's ki. He knew the reason very well.

.EXTRA

The GM senzu bean. The Bulma's equivalent of Chichi's Frying Pan. It was created in Bulma's attempt to improve the senzu bean. When ingested, besides the standard healing, any long term damage or lost limbs including the Saiyan tails and any battle scars would be healed. When tested, it worked. And it worked far too well. All the nails, hair and beard that were clipped, trimmed or shaved grew back. Fortunately, the parts that were shredded naturally did not grow back so the hair length was limited and the test subject did not need to deal with a set of milk teeth. Still, the test subject was completely tangled physically and mentally by the event. Although it did heal the scars on the face (guess who was the test subject), it left a big mental scar in the mind. Bulma had to use the dragonball to revert all the effects and mental damage.

The effect of it on a Saiyan was predicted to be less severe since the Saiyan's hair grew in a much more restricted way. However no Saiyan was willing to take the chance. The long nails alone would cause a Saiyan warrior to commit suicide. Bulma also wanted to test it on a Namekian. She suspected that the bean would not cause any side effect to Namekians. Unfortunitly, Namekians did not need to eat and Piccolo or Dende refused to to drink anything when they visited.

On the other hand, Bulma loved the side effects. She no longer needed to wait for the hair to grow long when she wanted to change the hairstyle. She only needed to take a GM senzu bean, careful not to be tangled by the growth and cut off any excess. With hair that reached the waist, she could try many new hairstyles. Unfortunately as a scientist, she could not keep the long hair and fingernails for long because of the laboratory works.

She realized something. This was the perfect weapon against the male members living in her house - a weapon that she would not mind backfiring.

When used as a punishment, she would administer it by hiding it in the offender's meal. This tactic was greatly feared by the Saiyans. For it was impossible for a hungry Saiyan to spend time searching for a bean in a mountain of tasty food. Worst still, Bulma sometimes ground the bean into powder form before mixing. The Saiyans tried many times to eliminate the beans, however to the Saiyans' horror, Bulma anticipated this and she grew thousands of them, hiding them a places/dimensions accessible by herself only.

.2

"Brat, why are we having this talk here?"

"Well, I reckon the gravity room is the most secure room in the house. The room is pretty much empty, so it is near impossible for something to be hiding in here. And I don't think any spying device can remain intact after one of your high gravity training sessions. Also this room is sound proof so no one outside can hear our conversation."

"Do you realize that the enemies will know we are suspicious if they see us entering this room together?" Without any information, Vegeta instinctively assumed that there were multiple entities with hostile intention behind all this.

"Yes Vegeta. However I can't think of a way to get around this and I think they have learnt about our suspicion already." Gohan showed them the bug. "Goten found this when he was practicing ki blast in the forest. The debris from the impact hit the bug and broke it. There is a high chance that another bug saw Gotan taking this bug to the house."

Bulma was looking at the mechanical bug she was holding. She could see the electric wires and circuits through the cracks on the shell.

"If that part of the shell is not broken, I won't know this is a fake."

"So Bulma, what do you think of this?"

"Well, I can't tell much at the moment. I hope this is not some fool trying to create another Cell."

Vegeta's eyes brightened when he heard this. Since Kakarot was dead and Gohan had been slacking, he was the strongest of the warriors. This would be the best chance for the prince to gain the respect that he long deserved. His training would not be wasted after all.

"...Cell?" Vegeta asked happily...

.3

Gohan sat in the dining room, pumping food into his stomach. This breakfast consisted of food brought from 5 restaurants - Vegeta and Trunks refused to share their breakfast. He saw Bulma was storing the food from 6 other restaurants into a lunch capsule for him to take to school.

He thought about the decisions reached from last night's meeting. Bulma would study the design of the mechanical bug and he would go to the city library after school to find more information about that particular bug species. Knowing whether the fake was modeled after a real bug species and whether the species was a local one would give them some insight.

Gohan looked at Vegeta next to him. Vegeta was angry. Maybe this was because he wasn't given an important mission and his job was just to act normally. Maybe this was because he was acting normally. At this point Gohan felt Videl's ki.

"Brats, quickly finish your breakfast and we will have a spar."

A standard spar last less than 5 minutes, as they could trade over 200 blows within 30 seconds. However, a robbery could not wait that long.

"Vegeta, I have a robbery to attend!"

.4

Videl chased the robbers through the door into an open area. The robbers stopped and turned around to face her.

For a good martial artist, when one concentrated and cleared the mind of all stray thoughts, one could form a mental image of the surrounding by combining the hearing, sight and instinct (simple ki sensing). The martial artist could see clearly the action and intention of all weaker enemies as if they were in plain sight.

This was exactly what Videl was doing. In the mental image, she saw two robbers in front of her and one had sneaked up from behind with a gun.

She did a back-flip and jumped backward into the air as the robber fired the gun. She was ready to somersault down next to him and sweep-kick him when the mental image suddenly blurred and quickly cleared. All three robbers were unconscious and slumping onto the floor. Her eyes did not pick up anything but her instinct was screaming Great Saiyaman.

"Maybe he's not in the mood today..." Videl murmured as the police officers arrived at the scene. 


	3. Chapter 3

The Battle of the Scientists 

Disclaimer: Me? Own DBZ? Never!

Chapter 3 - Dende's tactics

.1

Videl was moving at a snail pace towards the school. The failed robbery was just a few streets away and she still had plenty of time. Yet she wasn't happy, she was boiling with anger.

"The bank wasn't yet opened! Don't they know the opening hours of the bank when they plan the robbery! Idiots! Now I missed hours of precious sleep. I'll kill them if I fail the exam this morning!"

Ahead of the young woman was Gohan, who was walking even more slowly towards the same destination. She noticed this as well.

"Are there more bugs? Was the bug collecting samples of our cell? Who's controlling the bug? Is that person trying to create another Cell? Does that person process the cell sample of Perfect Cell or Cell Jr? How many..." Gohan sighed, as many questions were racing round and round inside his head, without the finishing line anywhere in sight. With eyes closed and deep in thought, the demi-Saiyan switched to autopilot modewhich his instinct took over to guide the body forward.

"What's Gohan doing here? And this is unusually early for him too... Never mind, he will do just fine."

Grinning evilly, the female crime fighter sneaked up slowly from behind. Venting all anger into her throat, she inhaled deeply and-

"Videl, what do you want?" Gohan stated instinctively without warning.

"Wha-wha-HIC-what?"

"Oh dear, I forgot to act 'normal'..." thought Gohan as he snapped back to manual.

"Yes Videl?" said Gohan.

"This is HIC impossible," hiccupped Videl. "HIC how do you HIC know I was be-HIC-behind you?"

"Er... because I saw you... yes, I saw you from the reflection!" All the questions in his head were chased away by the immediate threat.

"Reflection? HIC where?"

"... I saw your reflection on the... opened window on the building we just passed!"

The girl did not believe a single word he said. Although she saw him from behind, she knew he wasn't looking up when he called her.

"I know he HIC is lying but I don't have any HIC hard evidence," thought Videl. "Oh HIC no, this hic-HIC-hiccup is invading my HIC thoughts!"

"Let me help you," replied Gohan as if the young man could hear her thoughts.

Videl nodded, feeling a bit embarrassed. She felt a big warm hand was placed softly on her back while the other hand was on her shoulder. After a few seconds, the hiccup ceased. The young lady felt so warm and calm that if this kept on then she would have fall asleep. Shutting her eyes, she wanted this moment to last forever.

"Forever?" Videl snapped awake.

"Videl, are you all right?" asked Gohan with a worried look.

Blushing slightly at the thought, Videl thanked Gohan and scuttled off.

.2

The Guardian of Earth was looking intensely at the pencil on the table...

"Candy!" shouted Dende. Almost immediately, a lightning bolt shot out from his hand and hit the pencil.

"Well done! It hit the target this time!" said Mr Popo.

"Thanks Mr Popo. But it is supposed to change into a candy..." Dende replied with a weak smile. "Maybe it is now a candy that looks like a pencil?"

"...I don't know. Why is it so difficult to transform a pencil into a candy? I thought it is easy to make things."

"Well, it is easy to create things with magic. So normally if you want a candy, you just create one, there is no need to transform something into a candy. Transforming an object into another object is totally different. And since I'm performing it without chanting a spell or touching the object, it is far more difficult."

"Then why are you doing this?"

"Remember what Piccolo told us about the upcoming magic battle? In a magic battle, the most effective method of attacking is to transform the opponent into an inanimate object. In such situation, you won't have the time to chant a spell nor the chance to touch the opponent. So I'm practicing with a pencil as a starting point and once I have perfected it, I'll switch to plant and animals... Well, there's only one way to find out whether this object is a candy or not." (Disclaimer: no animal is harmed during the making of this fan fic - yet)

"But Kami-"

"Don't worry Mr Popo. According to my calculation, the risk of harm is really small."

"Kami, how?"

"Well, there are three possible outcomes. Now it can be a pencil or a candy or or neither a pencil nor a candy. And this will be harmful only if it is the third case and is composed of corrosive or poisonous substance. So I estimate that the chance to be one in six. Being less than 20 and with my own influence on fate, being the Guardian of Earth, it practically won't ever happen."

"Kami, I suggest you to study more mathematics before doing this."

Mr Popo pointed his finger to the pencil. Dende turned and saw it had corroded half way through the table.

"Haha, my bad!" laughed Dende. "I'll let you taste it next time. Speaking of which, I do have a mathematics lesson to attend."

Mr Popo went pale - if that was even possible.

.3

Gohan finished the exam within 6 minutes. And based on that, he estimated 40 of the students had failed. So it was natural that during lunch, Videl, Eraser and Sharpener kept complaining about the difficulty of it. At the same time, the male blackhole pulled in all the food within the event horizon.

Once they finished their lunch as well, Gohan quickly urged them to leave the canteen. The poor demi-Saiyan simply couldn't handle the sight of other students disposing their lunch leftover, ie wasting perfectly fine food. By the time they left, Gohan's face was already bright red and nearly in tears.

The exam in the morning was an internal one and the results would be used to gauge the progress of the students as well as to set course for the rest of the term. The exam only took up the morning and the rest of the day was filled with lessons as usual. So they returned to the classroom and braced themselves for the first lesson in the afternoon, which was mathematics. Once the lesson started, Sharpener quickly dropped into a deep slumber as usual.

The Saiyan warrior nearly jumped from his seat when Sharpener woke up again equally quick and started paying attention to the teacher. Other students didn't notice any of this - for they were acting like zombies ever since the doomed exam. Anyway, they couldn't feel the extra ki signal inside Sharpener. It was Dende's. After the initial shock, the teen Son remembered his parents told him that the old Kami once also processed a human to fight Piccolo. So Dende was using the same technique. But why?

As soon as the lesson ended, Gohan pulled Sharpener/Dende out of the classroom and dragged him into the washroom.

"Dende, what are you doing here?"

"Okay Gohan, there is something I need to tell you," said Dende. "Ahem, the world is in grave danger!"

"Is that all? All the way here just to tell me that?"

"Come on, Gohan! Can't you give me a more dramatic response? That's my first formal Kami speech!"

"No, I don't have time for that."

"Can't you show a little respect to this poor inexperienced Kami? Please?"

Puppy eyes on Sharpener's face simply wouldn't work on Gohan.

"No, but I can see that you are green," answered Gohan.

"Hey! That is not funny."

"Exactly my point. Now shoot before I shoot you back to the hideout!"

"Look! I just want to help you!"

"Who is helping who? You are the Guardian of Earth after all."

"Yeah? Who asked me to be the Kami in the first place? Who needed me to create the dragonballs? And who used me as a healing machine and came to the hideout only when serious injured?"

"And I had such a high hope in you! I was proud to be your friend! I had a high hope in the humans! I spent every single minute to improve myself so I can serve them better! And what do I get in return? Nothing! If that's how you're gonna treat me, then fine! I'll leave!"

With that said, Sharpener/Dende turned away, ready to fly off though the window. However Gohan was too deep in his guilt to recognize the flaws in Dende's acting and reasoning.

"...Dende, I'm really sorry. I shouldn't shouted. You are one of my best friends. It's just that I got nervous because I won't get another chance to lead a normal life if I blow this one. And I don't exactly consider Sharpener as a friend."

"I'm fine now Gohan. I understand how you feel. You are my best friend after all."

"Thanks Dende."

Big hug followed. Good luck no one witness it. (Dende was too kind not to torture him further)

"Now lets get back to the business."


	4. Chapter 4

The Battle of the Scientists

Disclaimer: Tell you a secret - I do not own DBZ

A few notes:  
1. Hopefully Videl and Mr Satan will get bigger parts later in the story.  
2. I call it a chapter by length more than by sub-theme, so the chapter title is more or less meaningless 3. Please excuse me for giving Dende so many new tricks in this chapter.  
4. There will be very few action scenes for the time being.  
5. I'm working on the next chapter.

Chapter 4 - Tedious Work

.1

Videl did not notice the change in Sharpener, nevertheless she saw Gohan leaving the classroom with him in tow. Knowing the guys were not on friendly terms, she was hoping as well as worrying that something might happen. So instead of waiting for the next teacher to arrive, she decided following the two of them would be far more interesting. So after making up an excuse to convince Eraser to stay, she left the classroom and followed their voices.

The voices led the female spy to the male toilet. Although she heard them, they were too low for her to make out what they were actually saying. Obviously she could not just walk inside (obviously she wanted to), so she pressed her right ear against the wooden door instead. However that did not make the teacher behind her any less angry. He followed her when he saw her sneaking out of the classroom.

"Videl! What do you think you are doing?"

"EEK!"

"Why are you not in your classroom?"

"Sir, I..."

"You will explain in your detention after school! Now come with me to the Principal's office."

"...yes sir."

This was a really bad day for Videl...

.2

"HAHAHAHA!"

They bursted into laughter as soon as Videl and the teacher left.

"That will teach her!"

"Careful Gohan, I'm sure she will get you back later."

"Ha, don't worry. So do you come to talk to me about the mechanical bug?"

"Yes, the mechanical bug is more urgent although it is less dangerous."

"What!"

"Hehe, you should have done that earlier." Dende saw the expression on Gohan's face. "No, that's no joke. There is another danger. But don't worry about it, I don't know anything about it except a hint from Piccolo. And I haven't sent a report to Kaio Sama yet. The mechanical bug has the highest priority, so let's deal with that first."

"... do you know who's behind it?" asked Gohan after he recovered from the shock.

"Sorry, no. I can sense any weak good or evil thought on Earth. Much like the way you can sense the action of weaker opponents. I cannot sense the one responsible for the mechanical bug so that there must be a strong mind behind it. And from the nature of the event, the mind is probably an evil one."

"...strong...evil...mind?"

"Yes, a strong mind must be very intelligent as well as having a strong determination. Such a strong mind is rare to find. So it is likely to be the work of a single person. Strong determination is usually associated with extreme hatred or love. The latter is stronger but it usually belongs to a good person like you and so it is unlikely. What I'm trying to say is that someone is filled with hatred against one of you. Maybe that person is seeking vengeance."

"Hey! You are one of us as well."

"But I'm Kami, no one hates me. Right?"

"I'm not so sure about that. For a start, those students in the classroom probably hate you for the hard exam paper this morning."

"But I did not set the questions!"

"That's not relevant. They will blame you for anything remotely bad. Videl definitely hates you for all the bad events that happened to her today."

"Great, now you have convinced me that I need to watch out for the mechanical bug as well."

"And with the clever mind, I'm sure that man will cook up some dangerous plan. But who can he be..."

"Gohan, how do you know that person is male?"

"In general, human females hate bugs. It will be near impossible for this to be the work of a female unless she is an alien."

"Oh yeah! Guess I still need to familiarize myself with the human culture."

"...who..."

"Although he is working alone on the mechanical bug, I ran a detailed scan on every person in every organization on Earth with over 50 members. I wanted to make sure he is not involved in any other sinister plans with others," said Dende.

Looking at Gohan, he wasn't certain whether his was listening to him or not.

"Gohan?"

No reply.

"I scanned 5,328,736 normal organizations such as governments, business firms and big families. And 17,346,861 evil organizations such as private armies, crime organizations, cults, CAPSULE CORPS AND THIS SCHOOL."

"..."

Now he was certain.

"Hey! Gohan!"

"Wha-oh-yes?"

"I found 193 holes in the scan - that means there are 193 people with a strong mind. But after further investigation, none of them are related to the mechanical bug. So he is not involved in any organization."

"I wonder where does he get the money for all of this?"

"...don't know. How did Dr Gero get his hand on the research fund?"

"...don't know either."

"And to save you a trip to the library, the mechanical bug that you've found is modeled after a species native to your home area. Well, that's all I know. Hope that helps... Oh, one more thing."

"Yes?"

"There is another bug inside Bulma's lab."

"What! How did you find that out?"

"I can remotely search an area within a certain range. I tried to search your house and Kame's, but they are too far away from here or from the Lookout."

"You sure learn lots of neat tricks from being Kami."

"Yes, but most of them are useless in the face of a powerful foe."

With the talk completed, they returned to the classroom, getting an odd look from Eraser. The teacher and Videl hadn't yet return and Dende quickly left. Sharpener soon woke up, thinking he slept through the maths lesson again.

.3

"No. Don't worry, Chichi. Gohan will be late today but I didn't ask him to do anything dangerous. I just asked him to look up some information in the city library. Nothing is gonna happen."

After more persuasion, Bulma finally put down the phone. Before the phone call, she had spent the whole day working on the bug. The scientist left all the office work to her father and was glad for the brief change.(No pun intended)

Tooking a much needed break in the kitchen, she reflected on her finding after all the hard works today. Dealing with the phone call from Chichi was the hardest of all, seconded by hacking of the 67 security locks in the software on the bug which would fry the whole circuit board for a single wrong move.

The last time she did so much reverse engineering was around the Cell game. Started the work just before the Cell game, she created the remote control and removed the bomb in No 16. And after the Cell game, she immersed herself in it again, to take her mind off the death of her best friend.

Not only did she work on the android technology, she also worked on the time machine left by Cell. Being the first scientist to reverse engineer one's own invention, she admired herself for inventing such a piece of art. And with the GM sensu bean, dragon radar and other projects, her work greatly exceeded that of her father. Indeed, her resume would be extremely long - if she ever needed one.

After all these projects, she created the Hardware Reverse Engineerer (Hareen). Hareen could analyze an object and produce a 3D model of the object with error down to the width of several atoms. At first, Bulma was worried that Hareen might damage the object because Hareen would scan an object by exposing it with radiation. But later she got pass this problem by reducing the radiation to near background level. With this, she could quickly work out the basic function of each unshielded component inside the object, so that she could concentrate on the software and any subatomic aspect of the object.

The result from Hareen indicated that the basic structure of the bug was the same as the one used to create Cell. Speaking of which-

The scientist put down her cup of coffee and dashed back to the lab. 


	5. Chapter 5

The Battle of the Scientists

Disclaimer: You must know this by now...

Note: Beware of long talks!

Chapter 5 - Talk at CC

.1

After lessons of boredom, all the students rushed to the exit as the school hour finally came to an end for the day. However the female crime fighter was halted at the school gate by a teacher and was dragged off to the school jail (detention room) for a crime she had committed.

"Gohan! It is all your fault! I'll get you for this!"

Earning the classic villain line from Videl, Gohan knew he was in deep trouble. Erasa laughed at the sight and Sharpener was happy that Videl was mad at Gohan. After a short walk, Gohan separated from the other two and quickly took off to the sky once they were out of sight. He was glad that he could report back so early, but deep inside, he missed the daily fun of playing hide and seek. Soon Capsule Corps was directly below him and he landed softly in front of the giant building.

"Hiya Gohan!"

Trunks was waiting for him at the door and immediately he greeted him with 18 ki balls, each one tracing a different erratic path towards the teenager. The attack was designed to force the receiving end of the attack to focus on their overall pattern, without realizing that when combined together, the light and movement of the ki balls formed a hypnotizing display. Then the fighter would suddenly find the body irresponsive and could not do anything except being bombarded by the ki balls.

However Gohan was good enough to keep track of each ki ball, so he easily batted the ki balls into the evening sky. Then fired his own volley, which overtook and destroyed them, preventing Trunks from pulling them back for a surprise attack. Many people near the area saw the resulting firework display but none of them was alarmed by it, since it was nothing special comparing to the other weird phenomenon that appeared above Capsule Corps over the years. It was well known that no insurance company in the world would cover any damage received when flying above this building. Not only that, all organizations in the world, no matter how crazy they were, would immediately dismiss the reports of UFO sightings from this area.

"Hiya Trunks! That attack was really good!"

"Mom designed it!"

"She did?"

.2

The two went inside the building after the little exchange and Trunks quickly climbed onto Gohan's shoulders. He missed the chance to do it last night and had waited long for this ride, his dad's height simply wasn't satisfactry. Every one knew this was also why out of all humans, Vegeta was particularly friendly towards Krillin.

"Forward!"

"But sir! You are pointing to the right!"

"You fool! Forward to the right!"

"Aye aye sir! But sir, you are really heavy!"

Trunks laughed and they marched directly towards Bulma's lab. She was sitting in front of an old computer and staring at the screen when the two demi-Saiyans arrived.

"Hi Mom!"

"Yes Trunks?"

"Gohan is here."

"Oh Gohan, why are you back so early?" Bulma asked while her eyes were still fixed at the monitor.

Trunks got down from Gohan's shoulders and the two walked into the room. Then as if they had planned it all out, Trunks leaped and sat onto his mom's lap, Gohan promptly picked up the chair with her sitting on it. Then he carried them outside the lab before she could protest.

"Hey! What are you doing? What is this about?"

"Bulma, we better talk out here, there is a bug in that room."

"What! ...but how do you know?"

"It is a long story. I'll go and get Vegeta."

"No, let's have a look at the bug first. Do you know where exactly is it?"

"Yes, I know, but we may disturb the bug."

"Don't worry. There is a way we can take a look without being noticed."

.3

When Gohan told Bulma that the bug was behind the old computer she was using, she was not shocked. Ever since she knew there was a bug in the lab, she was half expecting it to be there. With the help from the two youngsters, she placed Hareen in front of the computer and used it to scan the bug behind it.

Although she wasn't shocked by the location of the bug, she was disgusted by the appearance of it. For what they saw from the quick scan was an extra large cockroach. There was a opening at the rear end of abdomen and a wire was seen coming out from it. The other end of the wire was plugged into an I/O port on the back panel of the computer. The wire was not long enough for the cockroach to rest on the floor and so it was dangling. Added to the fact that its hairy legs twitched occasionally, the sight was extremely disturbing for the lady and the 2 demi-humans.

However the movements also caused Hareen to slow down to nearly a halt and it took Bulma a while to adjust the machine to handle it. As soon as she managed to switch Hareen into automatic mode, all three of them quickly left the room. However Bulma was grim because she eventualy had to return there to study the data.

.4

After hearing about Dende's visit and spending half an hour or so studying the new data from Hareen, Bulma gathered the others into the living room and commenced their second meeting.

"Everyone please take a copy," said Bulma, while handing out sheets of paper to other participants.

"Woman, you expect me to... read this?"

"Of course Vegeta."

"I will not read it."

"Will not or can not?"

"I can read human writing!"

"Then why won't you read it?"

"No one read anything in the meeting I had in the Saiyan Royal Palace or in Freeza's court."

"That's because you barbarians reach an agreement by blasting each other into dust!"

"No, they never disagree with me in the first pla-"

"Vegeta, the last time you had a meeting was years ago and I have meetings every day in Capsule Corps! Now shut up and read it or we will ignore your views."

"...fine. But I must say this: we are not barbarians as we have been traveling across galaxies years before your foolish humans can write."

"And you got beaten into a bloody pulp by those stupid toys created by foolish humans."

"How dare you!"

"Now let's look at the first page," said Bulma, ignoring the raging Saiyan. "Figure 1 is the structure of the bug found by Goten. As you can see, there are solar panels underneath the translucent shell, which recharge the energy cells located in the abdomen. The abdomen also houses the CPU, which controls all behaviors of the bug. The central mechanical structure is in the thorax where other sections are connected. Finally the head stores a set of cameras and a transmitter."

"Boring. Useless."

"Figure 2 is the structure of the bug in the lab. The structure is more of less the same, although abdomen is fitted with the wire for connecting to a computer and the energy cells are made smaller to accommodate this."

"Woman, your drawings are as ugly as you."

"Thank you," replied Bulma. "The basic technology used in the bugs is the same as the one used to collect cell samples, so they are definitely related. But the new bugs are incapable of collecting cell and so I think there is no risk of another Cell."

"Bulma, then do you know what's the purpose of the bugs?" asked Gohan.

"Partially yes Gohan," said Bulma. "The bug in the lab is designed to connect to one computer only and it can't disconnect once connected. Since it is found connecting to the one I used for storing Dr Gero's blue prints, I believe it is for stealing those data."

"But aren't the bugs related to the androids? If that person can build the bugs, then shouldn't he also know how to build the androids as well?"

"This is also true the other way round. I notice the blue print of the bug is not in the blue prints taken from Dr Gero's lab. That's why I was searching through them when you arrived. The technology used for the androids is vastly different from that of the bugs. So I think someone beside Dr Gero designed them."

"And the designer of the bugs is the master mind behind the two new ones?"

"Yes, that's definitely possible. The bug found by your brother is more advance than the bug in the lab, which in turn is more advance than the one during Cell game. He must be familiar with technology in order to continuously improve the design."

"Maybe Dr Gero and the bug designer were just using each other to further their own goal. They did not trust each other."

"I think so too. Scientists rarely share their technology with others and I don't see any Red Ribbon logo on any of the bugs. The motive of the bug designer is still unclear."

"What about the purpose of the other bug?"

"Beside surveillance, I can't think of other. The bugs have no sign of mass production and so I don't think there are many of them. Do you have any ideas what we are going to do?"

"We can search for other bugs, but since there aren't many of them, I guess it won't be very productive," said Gohan. "Well, I think there are two things we need to decide first. First, the bug is still in the lab, what are we going to do with it? Secondly, are we going to inform the others?"

"Since the enemy is likely to be working alone, he does not have enough man power to monitor all of us 24 hours each day while he is working on his plan. So he probably doesn't know about our recently activities if we don't show him our suspicion. But if we destroy the one in the lab as well then losing two bugs within such short period of time will definitely alert the enemy. Besides, I don't use that computer for other projects and so the bug is now harmless."

"Naive fools," stated Vegeta.

"What!"

"Do you really think the enemy is sending out the bugs just keeping an eye on you? Think about it. He has waited many year for this, he will not risk being discovered for such a simple purpose."

"...so?"

"Stop hiding the facts! As soon as he has built the first android, the android will help him to build more - both bugs and androids - and so on and so forth! I'm sure he now has many androids working for him and is powerful enough to take us out. Now it is time for him to plan his strike and this is the reason why he sent some new bugs to us - to study our everyday life. I'm sure he will strike us anytime soon. We are fortunate to discover the bugs before he strikes us down."

The woman went pale. Of course she knew all of that and she knew her husband was right. It's just that she felt responsible. She felt responsible for thievery of the android blue prints. And as a scientist, she also felt responsible for the action of another one of her kind. When she saw how much Gohan enjoyed his school life, she knew it was her duty to keep him away from the battlefield. She was certain that this was her fight and hers alone. So she tried to hide the fact that the danger was imminent and hoped they wouldn't notice.

But Vegeta could see through all that. He would not let his wife carrying the burden all by herself. Yes, that would be cruel. He would not stand the cruelty of depriving him a fight he longed. That's why he tried to sabotage the meeting right from the beginning and once that failed, he spoke up with the most logical interpretation of the facts, forcing Bulma to back down, so that he could lay claim to his rightful battle, to show the world who really was the best. Now with Bulma completely speechless and Gohan dumbfounded by the turn of the event, the prince of Saiyans calmly took over the discussion. 


	6. Chapter 6

The Battle of the Scientists

Disclaimer: This is a FANfic from a FAN. Do I need to say more?

Chapter 6 - Gohan's action

.1

"Now woman, tell me what you are hiding." The Prince of Saiyans watched his wife intensely as he voiced out his command.

"What? I don-"

"Stop this foolishness before you get us killed!"

The accused turned to Gohan for support. However, the young man replied with a questioning look as Vegeta convinced him that she was guilty. Feeling frustrated as well as cornered, Bulma had no choice but to spill out.

"Fine... I worked out that the bug near Gohan's house was active for over a year and the other bug was in the lab for up to 3 years."

She looked at the two man as she said that, hoping the small revelation was enough to satisfy them. Vegeta was expressionless as usual and Gohan was clearly surprised. His eyes widened and he had the big "ARE-YOR-SURE?" written all over his face.

"Yes, Gohan. I worked out the first one from the weathering on the shell and the joints."

"But how about the other one? It was inside a building and rarely moved."

"That's easy. To read data from a standard computer, the easiest way is to utilize hardware and software, which are readily available in the market. So based on the hardware model and the software version used, I can date the time of construction."

Gohan didn't expect the bugs were there for this long. As a teenager whose life had been all mapped out for him by his mother, the expected duration of the longest plan he ever made was 2 weeks. So he was amazed when he found out that the enemy had been working on the plan for years. He was too young to realize this when he first faced the androids. Now He finally started to comprehend the capabilities of a strong mind. Oh dear, didn't Dende mention there were another 193 of them? (Possible sequel?)

Vegeta, in the other hand, had served years under Freeza in order to avenge for his race. Not only that, he also had met many others whose mind were filled hatred and betrayal. So he could easily understand the enemy's general strategy. However, most of the available information was related to the bugs and so it was insufficient for him to predict the exact method of enemy's strike. Would it be a direct attack with swarms of androids? Surprise attack? Or were his androids as powerful as Cell?

"I also found the transmission range of the bug to be 5 km. So I believe there are more powerful transmitters relaying the data back to the base."

"Bulma, that's great!" said Gohan. "If we can find those transmitters and let you examine them then you may find more clues. So let's look for those transmitters. It beats sitting around and doing nothing."

Gohan's plan was to find the location of the enemy and defeat him quickly. So he immediately suggested the others to search for the transmitters. Then they might be able to trace the data stream back to the enemy base. Otherwise, they would be walking in circles with their futile investigation. An alternative would be using the dragonballs to find the enemy. However they didn't have the time to collect the dragonballs and besides that, they all knew the dragonballs were reserved for clearing up the aftermath of any upcoming battle.

"Gohan, that's possible. But that will be 80 square kilometers of urban area surrounding this place or dense forest around your house. So don't put too much hope in that direction."

"We will search the two areas nevertheless," added Vegeta, gaining the attention of the other two. "And we will do it with a high profile."

.2

In the meeting, they all agreed that the main targets of the attack would be Gohan, Vegeta and Piccolo, for they were the only fighters who could defeat Android 16. This meant Kame House would hopefully be safe from the attack. On the other hand, it would be difficult to protect Gohan's home when he was in the school. So they decided to move his family into Capsule Corp, but then that would also alert the enemy of their plan.

Bulma then suggested them to use a family tradition as cover. Every season, Chichi, Bulma and Mrs Briefs would spend a few days (more like a week) for their seasonal shopping in Satan City. But since Chichi lived so far away, she would take Gohan and Goten with her to Capsule Corp and stay there until they visited every single shop in the city. By moving up the date of this event, Gohan moved into Capsule Corps together with his mom and little brother. But, to the horror of the male members in the house, the three women went shopping for real.

Two days after the meeting, Bulma finally finished her part in Vegeta's plan. (She could finish it in a day but shopping had a higher priority) In the first stage of the plan, she had to build an android detector. The job of the others was relatively easy. All they had to do was to act normal and stay alert.

This machine housed a powerful radar, an much improved scouter, a telescope and a modified Android 16 AI. Bulma put out a balloon within the range of the machine, as expected, the unmanned object showed up on the radar image and not on the scouter as it did not give off a ki signal. As soon as the discrepancy was detected, the machine pointed the telescope towards it and the AI used the visual image and the flight path of the object to classify whether the object was hostile. It quickly decided that the object was a normal balloon and so it didn't raise the alarm. With the completion of the final test, she was confident that the machine was ready, but in the other hand, she was not so confident about Vegeta's plan. So she went to see Gohan before reporting this to her husband.

"OK, it is ready to run."

"Great! Then we are ready to move on to the next stage."

"Gohan, are you sure about this?"

"Yes, this is the best course of action. Although we know the enemy will strike any time soon, we have no idea how long until then. Even Saiyans cannot stay in high alert for long, soon the stress will cripple us and we will be sitting ducks. Now we have done everything in our power to solidify our defense, it is time to hasten the strike. This way we can move into a more active position and maximize any advantage that we have over the enemy."

"Why don't we wait until we have built a few androids first? This will improve our defense as well."

"No. For all we know, the enemy has been building androids for years. It will be too late for us to start now. We may have more resource for producing the androids, but it will take way too long before our production speed can match up with the enemy. Anyway, this will only lead to an arm race in a long run and many innocent people will be dragged unnecessarily into this."

"But there is no turning back once we alerted the enemy..."

"Bulma, don't worry! For once, Vegeta is not over underestimating the enemy."

"Haha, that's right. If he has learnt anything from the Cell game, this will be one of them."

.3

The basic of Vegeta's plan was more or less the same as Gohan's plan. In another word, find the enemy and beat whatever out of him. However, their approaches of finding the enemy were pretty different. Gohan's plan was to find as many clues as possible by themselves and hopefully the clues would lead them to the enemy. Vegeta's plan was to lure the enemy to act carelessly outside the original plan, forcing the enemy to make a mistake and trapping the enemy with that.

As Gohan said earlier, the first stage of Vegeta's plan was to solidify their defense. Now they moved to the second stage of the plan. The objective of this stage was to alert the enemy of their discovery and to show the enemy that they were not taking it seriously. Based on that, Vegeta formulated three parts in this stage. The first part was to tell Krillin through the phone and hopefully the enemy had bugged the phone line. Then they would destroy the bug in the lab and the last part was to search for the transmitters openly.

Following the first part in the plan, Gohan picked up the phone and dialed Krillin's number, but before the other side answered, Vegeta snatched the phone from his hand.

"Listen, this is Prince of all Saiyans here and I-"

Pause...

"No, old drunkard! I am not calling to introduce you to Saiyan princess, I demand to speak to the midget now!"

Pause...

"Yes, the ex-bald weakling."

Longer Pause...

"There is NO PRINCESS! Now hurry up before I kill you!"

Long Pause... Gohan could hear a loud bang from the other side.

"Yes?"

Pause...

"Yes, your husband."

Long Pause...

"Yes."

Pause...

"Yes, midget."

Pause...

"I call to inform you that someone stole the android blue prints."

Pause...

"No, just wait till I find his rat hole and kick him into orbit."

Pause...

"Me? HAHAHAHA! What can a batch of dolls do to me? I won't worry even if that fool manages to create another Cell!"

Pause...

"What? You think I call you to ask for help? No! I'm just telling you to stay out of this. Your ki is so low that I may mistake you for an android and blow you up."

Loud click. End of phone call.

Vegeta put down the phone with a grin.

"Brat, what are you looking at? Let's go to the lab."

Gohan felt Krillin's ki was still up, so he made a mental note that explaining everything to Krillin would be the first thing to do after this event was over...

.4

When they arrived, Bulma already dismembered the bug and was studying the components. She seemed to be happy, as her lab was bug free once more.

"Hi guys! How did it go?"

"The phone call went well... I think." Gohan replied with a gulp.

"That's great! I'm studying the bug and since this bug is not damaged, I may learn enough to be able to build a bug detector in a few days."

"Fine woman. At this stage, you are free to work on whatever you want."

Satisfied with the progress, Vegeta turned to Gohan and now he had one last thing to do.

"Brat, search the area for the transmitters. You can start with the trashcans in the street. Make sure others see you doing it."

"What! Why me?"

"Simple, I must act like I'm OVER underestimating the enemy so I won't search for them myself. And this job is too out of character for Bulma, so you are the most suitable one for it. Besides, I made the phone call and she dismantled the bug. Now it is your turn."

"Brat, don't feel so bad about it. At least I didn't tell you to search OPENLY in the ladies or the sewer."

.5

Two days into the second stage, nothing happened so far, well, at least anything important anyway. A few of Gohan's friends from the school saw him going through the bins in the street. Thinking his family was too poor that he had to search the bins for valuables to pay for the school expanses, they started a fund raising campaign for him. The campaign was short lived, after a few others of his friends saw him going into the Capsule Corp and being familiar with the occupants. However, Gohan remained as the hottest topic in the school and Videl was not happy at all. She was mad that she wasn't the one who found out those things about him.

Gohan pounded his head as he recalled how he suggested searching for the transmitters during the meeting. His nose was completely numb after searching the trashcans for an hour when suddenly he felt Videl's ki had rose sharply. Great! What a rescue! Making sure no one was watching, he happily took off into the night sky.

The Great Saiyaman followed the signal and soon reached the outskirts of the city within seconds. There he spotted a big abandoned warehouse (cliche!) and a quick ki scan confirmed Videl was inside that building. However the area around the warehouse was empty and there were no other ki signals. Sensing this, he blasted into the warehouse, powering up as fast as he could. 


	7. Chapter 7

The Battle of the Scientists

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ. DBZ owns!

Note:

Sorry for taking so long. I just wasn't happy with the 1st draft of this chapter and then got too buzy with my new job and so I left it sitting on my hard drive for a few months.

Chapter 7 - Videl's reaction

.1

"Gohan, you idiot!" Videl said to herself when she was going home. Just like many other famous people, every single detail of her life was exposed to the public. Having grown up in such environment, she never had a chance to learn the meaning of the word "privacy". And she expected others to be the same. Indeed, many people tried to tell her of their own life story, even when she didn't want to listen at all. That's why she was deeply intrigued by Gohan's secretive way and was determined to find out everything about him. So it wasn't surprising to see her in such a bad mood when someone else uncovered one of Gohan's secrets before she did.

Still thinking about her classmate, Videl received a help request through her watch. It was unusual to have one during nighttime but she didn't hesitate and quickly drove to the crime scene. There she saw three police officers and followed them instinctively into a warehouse. However, once she was inside the building, the three police officers turned around and surrounded her. They were not using any weapon, and she knew that if someone opted to fight bare handed, then either that person was a top fighter or that person was an idiot. And in this case, the latter was unlikely.

Facing three top fighters, she was not confident enough to start an attack and the three men weren't making any move as well. But as the daughter of the world champion and the best crime fighter ever existed, her pride would not let her back off without putting up a fight either. She quickly shifted into her trademarked fighting stance, but in her heart, she simply didn't know what to do any more and just wished that either the Great Saiyaman or the Golden Fighter was here. 

"Where are they when you need them?" Videl whispered to herself. "Anyone, even someone as weak as Gohan..."

Just then, she heard a loud crash behind her, a hand picked her up and she was thrown out of the building. Ignoring that the new comer was dressed in the Great Saiyaman outfit, had a golden aura much like the Golden Fighter, and the fact that he just saved her from a sticky situation, she felt offended.

"You jerk! How dare you-"

Her line was cut short when suddenly a sphere of solid darkness enveloped the warehouse and erupted into a large volume of smoke and dust within seconds. The ground shook violently and Videl was pushed back a few feet by a shockwave and had to cover her nose against the choking atmosphere. She could hardly see her own hand when a person pulled her out of the smoke and then flew away from the scene. But it wasn't long before he lost his fight against the gravity and fell back down. She immediately ran up to him, knowing that he would be seriously injured. Indeed, the fallen was lying face down in a pool of his own blood, with his body covered by severe burns, dark red bruise and bone deep cuts from head to toe. And from his pose, it didn't take a professional to figure out that he had many broken bones. However, she also knew he would drown in his own blood if he stayed. So she carefully turned him over and-

"G...Gohan?"

.2

Vegeta was training in the gravity chamber when he felt the sudden fluctuation in Gohan's ki signal. Knowing Gohan was in deep trouble, he switched off the gravity generator and went outside to find the others. It didn't take him long as the building was soon filled with the trademarked wail of Super Saiyan Goten. Covering his ears, he followed the sound and traced it back to the living room, where all the others were panicking. Well, except Chichi, for she had already fainted. Just then, the alarm was sounded.

"You weaklings stay here. I'll go."

Yes, after years of training and battling, the Prince of Saiyans had gained limitless wisdom and decided that he rather be facing Perfect Cell than handling this bunch of idiots. Immediately, he left the building through a hole which he made this morning and partially repaired this afternoon. Up on the roof, the warrior spotted ten sparks of dim light against the night sky, and they were approaching from various directions with high speed. Quickly he transformed into Super Saiyan and fired ki balls at each of them. As he expected, none of them attempted to dodge the attack and they emerged from the impact without getting slower. As the distance between them was now much reduced, Vegeta could confirm his thoughts with his own eyes that they were protected by barriers.

"Androids..."

Making one more test, he flew to the left and they immediately adjusted their flight path towards him. He concluded that he was their main target and they were making a kamikaze run at him. He had faced this situation many times before during his years serving under Freeza and he knew the best method to deal with it. He powered up as they were approaching and once they were close enough, he flew straight up so that the androids were below him. Quickly, he turned around and threw out his right hand, ready to blast them all with a Big Bang attack. However, there was one major difference between this fight and his previous encounters. In the old days, he wouldn't care what was behind his enemies, but not this time. In place of an alien planet, which he didn't care for, he saw the Capsule Corp was directly behind the androids. So he grunted and withdrew his attack. Then he flew straight up again in order to put some distance back between them as well as taking the battlefield away from his home. 

"Home? I don't need home!"

Vegeta shouted as he ascended to Super Saiyan 2 and dived into the enemies. He dispatched them one by one until he noticed that his surrounding was changed into total darkness. Not only that, he also noticed that the androids had stopped using their barrier. Knowing something was wrong; he immediately powered up and flew away from them. But he had not gone far as he soon bumped into the darkness, which turned out to be an extremely strong energy field. With no time to lose, he summoned up a large amount of ki, tore through the energy field and pushed himself outside. The energy field promptly exploded. Escaping the huge explosion, which shook the sky behind him, he turned around and saw that nothing was left of the androids.

He figured that they were carrying powerful bombs similar to the one in Android 16 and the energy field was acting as some kind of mirror. When the bombs were detonated inside the barrier, the barrier would trap the energy of the explosion, preventing it from spreading thin. So the power of the explosion would be many times intensified. If all 10 androids managed to reach Capsule Corp undetected and set off the bombs in this manner, then none of them would have time to put up any defense and no one would survive.

Knowing that he was the target of the attack, Vegeta wondered if he should remain at Capsule Corp or he should go and help Gohan.

"I'm getting soft..." The prince remarked as he made up his mind and headed for the dangerously low ki.

.3

"Piccolo!"

"Yes Dende, I felt Gohan's ki too."

"Hold on... I can sense something else... Androids! At least 40 of them are heading straight here!"

"What!"

.4

Videl tore off a strip of cloth from her T-shirt and started bandaging Gohan. She stopped (to the horror of Gohan and all Videl fans) when she realized that there wouldn't be enough bandage even if she ripped off all her clothes... and she panicked.

Videl, you can't panic now!

"Huh? Gohan?"

Videl was shocked when she heard Gohan's voice. He was too weak to open his eyes, let alone speak!

"I must be hearing things."

But because of that, she calmed down a little and remembered that she had a first aid kit capsule with her. Immediately, she took the kit out and opened it.

"What is a bottle of hair spray doing in here!"

Without a second thought, she threw it away (it was actually a bottle of first aid spray) and took out what looked like a bottle of disinfectant (which turned out to be some medicine for internal use) and applied it on the wounds. (She thought she was so good that she would never need to use first aid. She was carrying the kit because her father forced her to take it.)

"Please Gohan, don't die..."

Miraculously, he was still alive (yes, anything can happen in a fan fic, especially one of manga/anime) but she had done everything she could (or rather, she had done everything she shouldn't) and now she had to take him to get proper treatment without delay. Not losing one second, she got him into her vehicle and started the engine, ready to take off into the sky. But then there was another Golden Fighter floating in front of her transport. For a few seconds, she could not look directly at him because the glowing aura around him out shone the headlight of the vehicle. As her eyes adjusted to the bright light, she could recognize him from the hairstyle that he was one of the fighters in the Cell game footage.

"Girl, where are you taking him?"

"That's none of your business! Now get out of my way!"

Not knowing whether he was hostile or not, she decided not to take any risk and put her foot down on the gas pedal. However, while she thought he would jump out of the way, he put out a hand and slowed the flighter to a halt. Obviously, she forgot to include the inhuman strength into her calculation.

"Not so fast, young lady. Where?"

Capsule Corp!

"What? Gohan, Capsule Corp? Yes! Capsule Corp!"

On the Golden Fighter's face, Vidal caught a glimpse of shock before being replaced by a smirk. Actually, she was equally shocked as well.

"Fine. Now go as quickly as you can."

Surprisingly, the Golden Fighter released them and Vidal immediately drove off without looking back. She had no idea why she kept hearing Gohan's voice in her head, but it was helpful so far.

"Kakarot, this is your and your brat's weakness...and mine too...?"

Indeed, one caring for others could be a vulnerable spot to be used by the enemy. The prince himself had seen many cases in which some people sacrificed themselves for others. But in the other hand, the weakness would become the driving force that pulls out his/her full potential. This was why Goku was ahead of him. Vegeta would have realized this if he heard Dende's word and gave it some thought. (or simply sat down with his son and watched some anime)

However, he didn't have much time to think about it. Just as he expected, he turned around to see that the sky was filled with approaching androids. The ascended Super Saiyan flew into the sky and spread his arms forward. Immediately, his aura flared and two gigantic ki blasts shot out of his hands and covered half of the sky.

"Double Big Bang Attack!"

Large portion of the androids were caught by the attack and their barrier quickly overloaded. Many flashes of explosion were seen as those androids disintegrated into dust. However, several groups of androids managed to survive the attack by combining their barrier and were able to drift slowly towards the rim of the blasts. Seeing this, Vegeta pumped up his energy and those androids were drown in the ki flood before they could escape.

The remaining androids, which weren't caught in the blasts, moved in quickly to attack.

"7, 14, 21, 28, 35...39 androids. I wonder..."

An android tried to punch him from behind; Vegeta turned around swiftly and sent out his fist. When the two fists collided, his fist went through the android's arm like thin air and once his fist reached the shoulder; he swiped his hand side way, separating the android's head from the body. Immediately, he performed a roundhouse kick, which cleaved up two androids to his left.

"Final Flash!"

Vegeta fired the ki beam at the group of 5 androids in front of him. The androids immediately combined their barriers to block the attack, but the Final Flash was much more concentrated than the Big Bang Attack and so the group was easily destroyed. However, this attack didn't end here, the ki beam continued and curved slightly down right (5 o'clock) and destroyed another group of 6 androids.

An android sent out a kick at him, Vegeta easily grabbed the foot, swung it around and threw it at two other androids. He fired a ki ball at the three and eliminated them before they could react. Then he dashed back and forth several times around the battlefield, and each time an android was destroyed with a punch or a kick. Some of them tried to trap him with the dark barrier but he recognized it and escaped.

15 androids left and only 30 seconds had passed.

8 androids surrounded Vegeta at close range (imagine 8 corners of a cube with Vegeta at the centre) and fired their arm cannons at him. A huge explosion was formed as they hit, engulfing the whole group of combatants. However, when the dust cleared, only the Saiyan was left. 


	8. Chapter 8

The Battle of the Scientists 

Disclaimer: DBZ? I own not.

Chapter 8 - Double Flash, Double Back Part 1

.1

Registering how useless it would be to continue their attack on the Super Sayian, the seven androids calculated that their optimal choice was to attack the other one instead. So when they saw Vegeta was engulfed in the huge explosion, they didn't waste a single clock cycle and took off to pursue the fleeting flighter.

The prince followed, but not before the air was clear enough for him to spot them again. By then the androids already had the vehicle within their visual range and a bright light was emerging from the arm cannon of the first android...

-Flash-

He could see a ki ball was thrown directly at him.

As the ki ball was getting closer, his vision was gradually filled with it's light.

Suddenly the scene darkened as a small figure appeared before him.

Then his vision was filled with light again as the ki ball hit the small figure.

-Flash-

Vegeta's mind returned to the reality as he felt a sharp pain tearing through his left arm. He immediately understood what had happened and redirected all of his ki into his defense, knowing that the androids' next move would be the detonation their bombs. Indeed, the androids sensed that this moment would be their last chance to deal more damage to the Sayians and so with no time to raise their dark barrier, they self-destructed. In the other hand, the Super Sayian too didn't have enough time to raise his defense to completely block out the combined impact of the seven bombs. Being thrown back down by an enormous force, he used his last drop to energy to push himself towards the flighter and crashed into its back compartment.

.1.5 extra: Explanation

Later when Vegeta told the others about that fight, Vegeta would not mention the flashback and simply say that he was fast enough to intercept the attack.

Bulma wasn't an expert on fighting, yet she found the story too suspicious. After several sections intense questioning and cross examinations with the kids' account of his ki signal during the fight, she found out that he somehow boosted his speed by 300 during the race. But with her limited knowledge in this field, she had to consult someone more knowledgeable in order to find out more. Out of all the fighters around her, she chose Krillin.

"HAHAHA...Bulma, he really did that?!"

"Of course! Now tell me what is so funny!"

"Why do you choose to ask me?"

"Because you are the best fighter out there who-"

"Do you really mean it?!"

"-who won't hesitate to expose Vegeta's secret."

"WHAT?!"

"What what?"

"Hmmm, I guess you are right."

"So tell me your opinion."

"Well, you know how people can go beyond their limit when they are desperate?"

"Yes, I heard of it."

"If someone is desperate enough, the body can exceed its limit by up to 120 but that will put a heavy strain on the body. This is also the basic of Goku's Kaio ken."

"You are saying that was what happened? But that can only account for a 120 boost, not a 300 boost."

"There was another important factor in the formula. You see, when Vegeta managed to intercept the attack, he took some serious damage to his left arm. But he withstood 8 of the same attack just several seconds earlier! That means he withdrawn most of his ki from his defense. Guess where did all the ki go?"

"So Vegeta diverted all his ki output into speeding up his flight and left none to other areas. That's why he took so much damage..."

"Yes! You've got it! Hehe..."

"...Gohan was in danger, Vegeta was desperate enough to go beyond his body's limit as well as risking his own safety. If Vegeta went into such danger to help Gohan, he really do care for him! HAHAHAHA! Yet he was too embarrassed to admit it. Oh my baby Vegeta! How CUTE!"

"Bulma, I have an idea..."

.2

Through the mirror, Videl could see the bright flashes behind them. Unlike other commoners, she was abnormal enough to understand that those were not a firework display. And that was why she was trying desperately to get themselves away. However, even with such a head start, the explosions quickly caught up with them. The whole sky behind them was filled with light together with a deafening explosion. With that, the whole vehicle rocked violently and she had no choice but to perform an emergency landing.

Once landed, the female pilot immediately jumped out of the cockpit and there she saw that the sky was again choked with darkness. Being reminded of the earlier explosion in which Gohan received all those injuries, Videl ran round to the rear, only to find a huge hole (more like a crater) on the back of the flighter. She creeped towards it, not knowing what to expect.

"Girl."

The lady jumped, even though it was just a voice which lept out at her.

"Who's that?"

"Stop fooling around and take us to Capsule Corp."

Videl recognized the voice belonged to the Golden fighter from earlier, but obviously he was not "Golden" any more because the back compartment was now completely dark. Shining a torch through the hole, she could see a man lying in there covered with cuts and wounds. The most serious injury was the one on his left arm.

"Let me tend to your wounds first."

"No, there's no need. My injuries are not that serious."

"But-"

"Time is more important. Especially for Gohan."

"...fine."

Indeed, if Gohan's condition was any better, the two of them would have started arguing and keep on for the next few hours(chapters).

.3

Being far weaker than the Saiyans, Piccolo was having a hard time against so many androids.

"MA-KEN-KO-SAP-PO!"

The Namek warrior destroyed an android with the attack, but at the same time, he received a punch in the face, a kick in the stomach and an energy blast in the back. Ignoring the pain, he quickly rip through the two close up androids with his right hand. The androids frequently used their barriers when they were not close by and out of all his different attacks, only Makenkosappo was strong enough to penetrate them. However, when he was charging the attack, his defense would be much reduced, making him an easy target for the androids. So after he defeated a quarter of the forty-four androids, he was too exhausted to continue.

"No! Kami, please come back and stay inside!"

Hearing Mr Popo's voice, Piccolo turned around and saw Dende flying towards him.

As soon as the battle started, Piccolo left the two inside the building and so far the androids focused all their attacks on him only. It seemed that Piccolo was the androids' only concern. But if Dende intervened, then...

"Piccolo! Come here! Let me heal you!"

Immediately, Piccolo was hit from the back. But he had no time to deal with that because-

"Dende! Your left!"

Hearing Piccolo's alert, Dende turned around and saw an android flying towards him...

-Flash-

He healed Krillin.

He healed Gohan.

He even healed Vegeta.

He healed and intervened.

Then there was Freeza.

-Flash-


	9. Chapter 9

The Battle of the Scientists 

Disclaimer: I don't own dbz, that's no secret.

Chapter 9 - Double Flash, Double Back Part 2

.1

Capsule Corp.

Bulma hurried to the basement after Chi Chi had recovered from the earlier shock. Mrs Son was now resting on the sofa and at the same time listening to the kids' reports. The two mini-Sayians were busy monitoring Vegeta's ki level and would occasionally bounce up and down as if they were watching a live football match.

"Daddy is returning with Gohan!"

"Are they alright?"

"I think so. Dad's ki was at resting level and Gohan's ki is low but stable."

"But if your papa is resting, how are they coming back?"

"There is another person with them."

"Who is it?"

"I don't know. I don't recognize that ki signal."

"Mom, I know! I know!" Goten cut in with a big grin.

"Goten know?"

"Yes, it is the nice big sister in big brother's class."

"...The nice big sister...?" A visible aura appeared around Chi Chi...

"Yes, the NICE big sister. Not the OTHER big sister..." Goten shuddered as he remembered some unpleasant events between him and the "OTHER" big sister. The kid was too busy recounting the day in which Gohan forgot to bring his lunch capsule and Goten was sent to deliver it. And it was in Gohan's school when Goten met Gohan's classmates for the first time - Videl, Shapener and Eraser.

But if he had paid more attention to his mother and looked closely, he would see the cold sweat on Chi Chi's brow, which came from the fear that the girl might mistreat her son. Then lower down, there was a stream of tear flowing down her left cheek. This came from the sadness of knowing that her son would soon leave her and have his own family. Further down, there was a smile on the corner of her lips, which came from the joy of seeing her son finally grown up. And there was the noise of grinding teeth, which came from the anger that a girl would dare to touch her precious Gohan.

With the colour on Chi Chi's face changing constantly and Goten was inresponsive to his calls, Trunk got scared and wished that some one saner was here with him. At least it was comforting that Vegeta, Gohan and Videl's ki signals were getting closer...

.2

With Capsule Corp finally within her sight, Videl let out a sigh of relief and directed the flighter towards it. And instead of wasting time with the bell at the main gate, she decided to fly straight into the premise, even though she didn't really know how she would explain such actions to its occupants. However, as soon as they were over the fending wall, there was a jerk and the vehicle began to move against her control as if it had a will of its own. Then she remembered the rumours saying that the security system of this place was so advance that it would automatically hack into the control system of any intruding vehicle. Once hacked, the system would send the vehicle into a secret lab in the basement and anyone on board would be used as lab rat by the mad scientists hiding in there. With that in mind, Videl Started to panic and pushed the power lever to the max, hoping to escape from her doom. In response to her action, the engine roared loudly and flared, yet the vehicle wasn't following its output.

"What is going on?!"

[Calm down.

"What was that?!" Videl was surprised that once again she heard Gohan's voice in her head. This time, she was certain that the voice didn't pass through her ears. All she could hear was the roaring of the engine...

"Huh? The engine? That means my action is getting through to the engine. The control system was not hacked..." Now that she had thought about it, since the control system didn't have any problem, there must be an external force, which was moving the vehicle against its engine. But when she looked outside, all she could see was an empty lawn. Nothing was holding the vehicle.

"May be it is a force field?" Clueless, Videl lowered the power output and switched the engine to "hovering" mode. So that in case the vehicle was suddenly free again, it won't go out of control.

"Brat, stop fooling around and put us down!" The "ex-Golden" fighter commanded.  
"There is nothing I can do, this flighter was stuck! And who are you calling-"

"Ok dad."

Videl's reply was interrupted by a boy's voice.

"EEEEK!" Videl was so surprised by the new voice that she couldn't say anything but "eeeeked". Then the flighter was lowered softly to ground level against its "hovering" mode. The girl quickly switched off the engine and jumped out of the cockpit, hoping to see what was manipulating the vehicle. But all she could see was a boy with purple hair grinning at her.

"Hiya!"

"...Hi..."

.3

"Mom! They are back!" Trunks returned to the house and found his mother at the door. Obviously she had done some preparation for their arrival. With the kid ran off to the house, Videl had no choice but to follow his lead, carrying Gohan by herself. She could have asked Vegeta to carry Gohan instead, but decided against it. Not only because that the man was hurt as well, it would be both insensitive and useless to ask, but also because she still wasn't sure how these people were related.

"What if they want to use Gohan as a test subject? At least with Gohan with me, I can still make a run for it." Videl thought, still thinking about the rumours about this place. So in silent but watchfully, she walked there. Vegeta simply followed.

"Trunks, go and tell Auntie Chichi and Goten. I'll take Gohan to the healing tank in the basement."

Trunks quickly left, knowing this is no time for more planks.

"Hm... are you Miss Videl Satan? I'm Bulma Briefs." Bulma recognized the girl's face from television shows and newspapers. Understandably, so did Videl.

"Yes Madam. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too. Please follow me."

"Where are we going?" Videl asked, not sure whether it was safe to follow. She heard Bulma said something about "healing tank" to the kid, but being a simple human as she was, she had never heard of it before.

"Wow, this girl really cares for Gohan. Chichi is gonna be mad!" Bulma thought with a grin on her face.

"Hm...Hello?"

"What? Oh right, don't worry, we have some medical facilities in the basement. We are just taking Gohan there to get some treatment."

With that said, Bulma led Videl away carrying Gohan with them, leaving Vegeta behind by himself.

"...Whatever." And Vegeta went to the living room.

.4

Soon with Gohan settled inside the healing tank, everyone returned from the basement, only to find that Vegeta was watching the television while the wounds on his left hand were still dripping blood and was making a big mess on the sofa. It was then that Bulma realized for the first time how bad were the injuries on her husband.

"Vegeta, what are you doing?! Why don't you fix up your wounds?"

"Wounds? What wounds?"

"You mean those holes on your left hand with red liquid flowing out are not wounds?" With that said, Bulma started to poke the said area with her finger.

"No, they-THEY ARE NOT..."

"Come on, we need to fix you up or we won't stand a chance against another attack."

"I, the Prince of all Sayians, will not let you, a lowly human, bandage me up like an idiot!"

"But we don't have another healing tank or sensu bean... Wait, may be you can have a GM sensu..." Quickly, the scientist fished out a small box from a pocket and opened it, revealing several of those cursed seeds. A doubtful look was clearly shown on the face of the wounded Sayian.

Suddenly, a siren was heard through out the Capsule Corp. Unlike the earlier alarm, there was no androids attacking, but the danger was much more threatening, so much more that Bulma nearly dropped her box of GM sensu.

"Quick Vegeta, we don't have time!" For some reason unknown to others, Bulma started to press Vegeta to take some action. Now Chi Chi was alarmed.

"Bulma, what's happening?" Chi Chi asked.

"It was the radar-"

"There are more androids?"

"No, not that radar. The other radar. This one sounds when-"

"Ki? The radar detects power levels?"

"No, power levels fluctuate too much to be a reliable indicator."

"The bugs?"

"No, I haven't found a way to detect those yet. Althought they are sending out signals to their main base yet-"

"Then what is it?!" As a scientist, Bulma answered each question with an explanation, this made Chi Chi became impatient, even though she's the one who kept Bulma from giving her full answer by asking all those questions in the first place.

"This one sounds when the radar cannot detect the dragonballs..."

"WHAT?!" Chi Chi and Vegeta shouted at the same time, while the three younger people did not understand the implication of this piece of information.

"Vegeta!"

"Fine! Give me a GM sensu!"

With the seed of evil in his stomach, Vegeta started to feel its power working through his body. The wounds were quickly healed and obviously Videl was shocked by the scene. But it didn't stop there, Vegeta was amazed that he could feel beating of his heart spreading all over his senses, something that he hadn't felt since-

-Flash-

It was worth it to spend so much ki on it.

Finally he had Kakarot in his hand. In this state, he was so small.

Now with ten times his normal power, he could easily squash this low class Sayian.

-Flash-

Quickly, he flew out of the window and disappeared from the view. Everyone else stared in shock, not only because the window was closed and he didn't open it before he flew out, but also because...

"Hm, is it just my imagination or does he get bigger and... and has a tail?" Videl felt that she would be like a fool if she kept asking that kind of questions. But with all these weird events going on, she just couldn't resist.

"I wish it is just my imagination as well." Bulma answered.


	10. Chapter 10

The Battle of the Scientists

Disclaimer: I don't own dbz, I'm sure of that.

There are references to Final Fantasy games and I don't own FF games.

Chapter 10 - Dreamy Truth Part 1

.1

A silence filled the room. Even the greatest scientist ever to grace Earth was unable to anticipate the turn of events. Now they could only hope that by getting a better view of the whole picture, or as whole as possible, they could find a way out of this mess.

"Trunks, can you sense your dad? Where is he now?"

"...he is high above us. But his ki is very BIG... I never feel Dad like this before."

His mother knew very well what her son meant by the word "BIG". Not "BIG" as in power level, but "BIG" as in physical width, length and height. Although this "BIGness" equated troubles, as least she was relieved knowing that her husband didn't go haywire and fly off to some distance places. Otherwise, she couldn't imagine what would happen if there were more attacks from the androids.

"Bulma, what happened?"

"Chi Chi, have you seen Oozaru before?"

"What?! You don't mean..."

"I'm afraid so."

"But how? Don't you need a tail and a full moon? Even if the GM senzu bean caused Vegeta's tail to grow back..."

"Yeah, those GM senzu beans are more magical than I thought."

"They are more than magical! I hope you will have them destroyed once this is all over!"

"Well...er...you see..."

Just like all other mad scientist, Bulma was deeply connected to her creations. It was sickening for her to see her brainchildren were disposed simply because they were not wanted. Yet, she knew she would not be able to talk her way out of it. Being cornered, her only option was to make a distraction. Scanning the room for a possible source, she immediately spotted Videl. The girl was listening intensively at the conversation, as if it could really answer some of her questions.

"Oh Miss Satan! I forgot to serve you anything to drink! Chi Chi, will you be so kind as to keep her company while I go to make some tea?"

"Sure sure." This request was so "proper" that no professional housewife would refuse, and so Chi Chi agreed without a second thought. Immediately, Bulam hurried out of the room, fearing that Chi Chi might change her mind. Now that the talk had abruptly ended, Videl took the chance to introduced herself to the others.

"Hello, my name is Videl Satan. I'm Gohan's classmate."

"Hiya big Sister! Remember me?"

"Of course I do, little Goten!"

"Hello Videl! I'm Trunks!"

"Hello Trunks! And Mrs Son, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too Miss Satan and thank you very much for helping Gohan."

"Don't mention it. He came to help me in the first place. But Mrs Son..."

"Yes?"

"Can you tell me what is going on?"

"Well...I..." Not sure whether it would do good to tell her the truth, Chi Chi hesitated. Just then, Bulma returned, yet the expected tray of tea filled cups were no where to be seen. Not knowing what to say, Chi Chi looked at Bulma expectedly, hoping she could do the answering instead.

"Don't worry Chi Chi, I'm not making the tea, I asked mom to make some."

"What? That's not what I -"

"Now Miss Satan."

"Ms Briefs, please call me Videl."

"Ok. Videl, can you tell me what happened tonight? I know you must have many questions but I have to decide on something first and your account of the event may give me some insight to the problem."

Minutes later...

"That's a relief." Bulma said after hearing Videl's recount, but not before asking multitude of questions, trying to squeeze out every single drop of useful information. On the other hand, Chi Chi hadn't say a word for the whole time, for the news about the dragon balls occupied her mind.

"Aren't we still in danger? My son is in the healing tank and the dragon balls are gone. Vegeta is out there but he got hurt pretty bad last time with the androids..."

"Well, Gohan and Vegeta are hurt by the androids only because they are taken off guard. Now that Vegeta is healed and we are fully alerted, they shouldn't be able to cause further trouble to us. Now we have to decide our next step."

"Excuse me, Ms Briefs?"

"Oh yes, we better explain to you what is going on before that."

"But Bulma, are you sure about this?"

"Now that we've got her so deep into this, I think she has the right to know the truth. And I don't think she will give up on seeking it out."

"I guess you are right. Will you do the talking? You have more first hand information than I do."

"Yes, but it will be nice to let the kids know this as well. Hey kids, do you want to listen to this?"

"Yeah!" The kids danced happily for they enjoyed stories as well as the snacks that went with them.

.2

Snakeway...

The path was mostly empty except for the lone Sayian who was running on it at high speed.

"I must be quick!"

Gradually, the runner pushed up his ki and increased his step size from 2 meters to 200 meters, so that he appeared as a leaping fireball. Soon the Snakeway shook as it experienced a sonic boom and two ki booms and the scene with filled with a golden light and the roaring of ki flow. However, that quickly ended as the man reached the end of the Snakeway and jumped onto the floating planet just beyond the path.

"Please! I don't have much time. The enemies will come soon!"

"Well, if you insist..."

"Yes, I do insist! I must show them the new move!"

"Fine. Then we will teach you our best moves that we had created over the years! Aren't we lads?"

"Yes, Captain Ginyu!" Several voices replied.

Gohan opened his eyes and found himself inside a healing tank. Not quite sure what was going on, he searched his memory to find out what was the last thing that happened. But then he remembered the dream that he just had and wondered if there was any hidden message in it. His thought was disrupted as he sensed Vegeta's ki and it was bigger than anything that he had met before.

"Wow, how does he do that?!"

.3

"Uwhahahaha! This is great!"

High above the Capsule Corp, a giant were-ape, which also happens to be the one and only living Saiyan prince, was circling excitedly above a thick layer of clouds, like a bored kid who just found his long lost favourite toy. After firing several "Mega Flares" into the dark space, he was finally calm enough to do some thinking.

"How come I'm in Oozaru form? My tail is back but there is no moon on Earth. And if I don't need the full moon to stay in this form, how do I transform back?"

Vegeta looked at his tail and immediately knew the solution to his problem but he quickly pushed it away.

"I wonder what will happen if I stay in this form over one night..."

It was true that no one ever tries to prolong the transformation by using artificial full moon even if they were in battle. One reason being that if they had failed to destroy their enemies during that night, then their enemies were much stronger than they were and they better escape the place than to keep on attacking. But the main reason was because having the size increased by 5 to 10 times in each dimension, the body weight would have a combined increase of several hundred folds. Since the appetite was directly proportional to the body weight, it became a major problem to feed just a single Oozaru, let alone an Oozaru army.

"How will I feed?"

During the last hundred years before the destruction of planet Vegeta, there were several recorded cases of death relating to food consumption while the subject was in Oozaru form. In those cases the fool was starving before the transformation. And once transformed, the hungry crazed Oozaru ate large amount of food, measuring hundred times the size of a standard Saiyan meal. In most cases, the consumed mass consisted of herds of the largest native creatures, along with a few boulders and tree trunks. However the Saiyan failed to stay in Oozaru form until the meal was completely digested and the body promptly burst when reverting back to normal size, resulting in instant death. Thinking about food, the transformed Saiyan realized that he missed his meal, yet he wasn't hungry.

"Maybe the bean also fills up the stomach?"

Not knowing the inner working of the GM Senzu bean, Vegeta could only speculate that much. On the other hand, to all Saiyans and also to many humans, the act of eating was more of an enjoyment than merely a body function, thus it was extreme depressing at the thought of not able to eat indefinitely. So to take his mind off the subject of food, the prince decided to take this opportunity and perform some experiments with Oozaru form.

"Let's see if I can transform into Super..."

With little effort, Vegeta transformed into a golden Oozaru. Forturnately, the layer of clouds blocked the light emitted from the body, otherwise, it would have become the latest entry in the "List of Unsolved Mysteries above Capsule Corp".

"Now with the next level..."

Focusing his ki, an act which was much harder to do in his current form, the whole body began to shake violently and electric sparks started to appear around him. Focusing even harder, bolts of lightning filled the air and the body was emitting a blinding light. At this point, he was surprised as he could feel that there was something up ahead, but it was still very far away from his reach. Not someone who easily give up, he pushed himself to the limit. Then suddenly without warning, images of death and destruction flooded into his mind, reminding him the thrill of fighting a strong opponent, the joy of eliminating weaklings, the anger of serving under Freeza and the lust of defeating his rival Kakarot. Unable to contain his rage, huge amount of ki gathered in his throat and turned his head toward the Earth below him, ready to unleash a "Tera Flare" that could blow out the Sun.

No Vegeta! Stop!

"Kakarot?! ...No, Gohan?"

With the help of the distraction, Vegeta quickly realized that he was about to destroy the Earth. Before it was too late, he charged up some ki in his hand and cut off his tail, knowing that this was the only solution. Immediately, he transformed back to normal size and the ki in his throat was dispersed. Filled with guilt and shame, he descended to the ground and went to the gravity room with out alerting the others.

.4

Bulma took out a piece of paper from a pocket and after clearing her throat, she started reading it.

"Young warrior, for your effort, you have earned the privilege of learning a dangerous secret known by very few people. Now being a member of our rank, you must not pass the secret to anyone else or you will face the wrath of someone who you have no hope at defeating. But if you want to change your mind, this will be you last chance to say so."

"Mom, you are awesome!"

"Hahaha, I always wanted to do this."

"Bulma, I'm not changing my mind, you can have my word."

"Videl, don't be so tense, that was just a joke! But I'm glad to hear what you just said. Ok, now where should I begin? ...Let's start with the dragon balls. Videl, have you hear about them before?"

"Yes, I have. They are mentioned in the history records of many ancient nations around the world. I came across it several times when I was reading up martial art history. I did some research on it but not much came up. All I know is that those dragon balls are some sort of wish granting device."

"Wow, Videl, I'm surprised! You do know your stuff. The dragon balls are created by Kami and there are seven of them. Once you gathered all of them, you can summon the Eternal Dragon and the Dragon will grant you a wish."

"Mom, you can have two wishes!"

"Yes, I know that. But it was just one wish when I first learn about it. Once the wish is granted, the dragon balls will scatter around the world and stay dormant as ordinary stones for a year."

"Hold on a sec. Bulma, I think I heard you mentioned something about a radar to detect the dragon balls. Is that correct?"

"Yes, I made detector called dragon radar."

"So you have the means to gather the dragon balls and make wishes."

"Yes, we have make many wishes over the years."

"Oh my... oh my... oh my..."

"Don't worry Videl, althought I started my search of the dragon balls for personal reasons, we now know better and use wishes mainly for bringing back those killed by evil."

"What?! You can even bring back dead people?!"

"Yes, but you can do it only once to the same person."

"Wait, when you mentioned the dragon radar earlier, you also said the dragon balls are gone. Then either someone make a wish or Kami is..."

"Well, no one can gather the dragon balls without me knowing, so it is unlikely..."

"That means Kami is...dead?"

"I'm afraid so..."

"Mom what are you talking about? Dende is alive. I can sense him right now."

"What?! Then why aren't the dragon balls showing up on the radar? How I wish to have a powerful telepath among us. Many times I suggested installing a phone system up there and each time they rejected the idea. Now see what happens!"

"Calm down Bulma, at least now we know they are alive up there."

"Chi Chi you are right. Now where was I?"

"So Kami's name is Dende?"

"Yes, and I know him since he was a kid."

"You what?!"

"Well, this one is a new Kami. We only have him for several years. The last one has to go because of Cell."

"You mean the last one got fired because he didn't do a good job in the Cell event?"

"It's not that, but lets leave this topic for now, I'll come to that again later." 


	11. Chapter 11

The Battle of the Scientists

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ

Chapter 11 - Dreamy Truth Part 2

1.

After his brief journey to the mortal realm below, the former guardian of Earth returned directly to the Lookout. Mr Popo was waiting for him and came up eagerly to hear his findings, but before he could ask any questions, Piccalo fired his first.

"How's Dende?"

"He hasn't wake up yet. How about you? Are you feeling alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I stopped at Korin's place for a senzu bean on my way down."

"Well, so are they..."

"Yes, they are genuine."

"Are you sure? Last time it..."

"I tested a few of them myself. I'm no expert, but I think they are pretty good in terms of human standard."

"But a rain of that? Surely this means trouble..."

"Don't worry. Compare to the other objects, which we had 'a rain of' over the years, the one that we just had was nothing. At most the locals down there will celebrate today as an annual festival for years to come."

"I hope you are right."

Clearly Mr Popo was still having doubts, something that frequently happens ever since Kami failed to defeat Piccalo and left the task to Goku. What Piccalo didn't need right now was to have Mr Popo worrying about things beside Dende.  
"Dende spent so much of his magic power into this spell, so much so that he fell unconscious and the dragon balls deactivated. It has to be successful. What I don't understand is why didn't he transform the androids into something more... elementary."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, it would require less magic if he transformed the androids into something pure, raw and inorganic like a lump of iron instead."

"And for some reason, Dende is obsessed with transforming objects into tasty candies with delicate paper warping."

"Yes, my point exactly. Do you have any idea?"

There was a brief silence as Mr Popo considered the question.

"No, but I think you should ask Gohan."

"Yes, I'll do that after this is over."

With this temporarily out of their concern, now it was time to review their current situation and ponder their next move. Looking at the damages done to the garden and the building as well as the pile of candies, Mr Popo knew there were plenty of repair jobs waiting for him. But it would be a waste of efforts to start now if there was a chance of another battle.

"Piccalo, are we safe yet?"

"I think Dende got all the androids. And I sensed Gohan and Vegeta finished their share as well. With so many androids destroyed, it will take some time for our enemy to recover. So as long as we watch out for sneak attacks, we will be fine."

"How are Gohan and Vegeta?"

"They are fine. I think. I would've visit them if Dende didn't drop into this coma after the spell."

"For once it was Dende who defeated the enemies."

"Yes, he did a good job. Magical attacks are super effective against machines.(Dende, I choose you! :P Sorry, I just have to say that) Simply being alive is magical enough to provide some magic tolerance. Too bad the senzu beans can't refill depleted magic. We have to wait for Dende to replenish his magic naturally and wake up."

"Is there any other way?"

"Well there is a way to refill his magic. It is possible to transfer magic from one of us into Dende."

"Really? Then we can wake him up."

"But this method is extremely unpleasant..."

"Then let me do it. It is my job to support the Guardian of Earth with my utmost ability."

"Mr Popo, you see..."

"Yes?"

"You can transfer your magic into Dende by having a mouth to mouth kiss with him."

"WHAT?"

2.

One hour had passed since Bulma started...

"What? You mean Gohan's father was the legendary Goku?"

"Yes."

"The one who single handedly brought down the Red Ribbon Army?"

"Yes."

"The one who defeated the Demon King?"

"Yes."

"The one who made it to the final of World Martial Arts Tournament twice and won the third time?"

"Yes."

"The one who married a princess of a remote kingdom?"

"Yes. And this lady here is Mrs Son."

"A country boy with a hero as father and a princess as mother? Oh my..."

Videl was having a hard time digesting the story and had to switch her mind into surreal mode. Well, she was doing a fine job, considering that this was the first time she heard of it. And Bulma was definitely not doing her a favour by spending the first half of the hour detailing how she obtained the special parts required to build the dragon radar, which put enormous stress on the mind of any listener. The Sayian kids fell asleep within 3 minutes.

"Bulma, Did Gohan ever pull some sort of legendary sword out of a rock and save the world?"

"What are you talking about? I didn't mention any sword..."

"Trust me on this one, there will be a sword sooner or later. Oh well, Gohan is too young to start with any world saving quest anyway."

Hearing Videl got an idea of a sword out of thin air and mentioned "world saving quest" as if it was as simple as drinking beer, Bulma decided to give the young girl some time to think things over.

"So that's why Gohan is so strong isn't it? With all these magical stuff around him."

"Not really. Gohan's strength is anything but magical."

"But his strength is inhuman, no one can train themselves to that level."

"Well yes, you are right that his strength is inhuman; but no, you actually haven't seen anything inhuman yet."

"Nothing inhuman? No way!"

"From what I've heard, you only saw his crime fights and tonight you didn't see any actual fighting. Am I right?"

"Yes."

"There you go."

"What? You mean a human can catch bullets, lift up trucks and fly?"

"Yes, I know a few human friends who can do those things."

"Hang on, why are you saying this as if Gohan is not one of them?"

"You see Gohan is so strong because his father Goku was a Sayian."

"And Sayian is?"

"A race of warriors and..."

"...And?"

"And it is not a human race. It is an alien race from outer space"

"...What?"

"They used to live on a planet called Planet Vegeta but it was destroyed many years ago. Goku was one of the few remaining Sayians."

That was simply too much for the poor girl.

"Come on! Fantasy material plus sci-fi space aliens? Not even a fan fic of an anime can be that crazy! What's next? Time travel?"

Now it was Bulma's turn to be shocked.

"How- how did you know?"

"WHAT?"

.3

Now that the pain had subsided enough for him to focus his mind on something else, the patient in the healing tank decided to play doctor. With years of experience of dealing damage as well as receiving, he quickly made a diagnosis. And the result was not encouraging. Not only were his wounds deep and numerous, many of them also had shreds of metal buried within. Normally the current of the healing fluid would wash away any foreign objects but this time it wasn't effective.

"That usually means an amateur handled my wounds... Who was it?"

Not realizing Videl was that bad, the demi-Sayian couldn't find an answer to the question. So with one more mystery add to his head, his attention return to his wounds.

"If the shreds aren't removed before the healing fluid forces the wounds to close up then they will cause internal bleeding..."

And in his current state, Gohan was too weak to leave the healing tank to be operated on. So either he could somehow do it without leaving the healing tank or he could wait until all the wounds were closed and have the operations to reopen the wounds and remove the shreds one by one.

"Oh, I wish someone can get me a senzu bean or Den-"

Gohan stopped as he suddenly realized that he once again regarded his friend as a healing machine. Now he was full of guilt.

"Dende, I'm so sorry."

"Weakling."

"What? Oh it's you Vegeta."

"Hm."

"Vegeta, thank you very much for saving me."

"Look at yourself, your care for that human girl makes you weak."

"But she is innocent. I dragged her into our battle. I can't let her come to harm no matter what."

"What's the difference? Just like her father, she is too nosy for her own good. I bet she just wants to show off her powerful punch and kicks. You don't need to feel responsible for her."

"No she is different and you know that. You were with us on our way back."

"I don't care what she is. She makes you weak and that is a fact."

"What about you? You got hurt from saving me."

"That was different. I was returning a favour."

"You mean if this happens again..."

"See if I care."

"Vegeta, you are not being honest."

"I mean what I say."

"Then what are you fighting for?"

"To prove myself."

"That's it?"

"What else do you want?"

"Not to prove yourself worthy to be the Prince of all Sayians? Not to prove yourself superior to lowly humans? Not to prove yourself to be the strongest?"

"No, I am those already. Those don't need prove."

"But am I right that even Sayians would care for a good comrade?"

"Yes, but see what happened to the Sayians? Destroyed by a single man."

"But I'm sure a good comrade will look out for you when you are in trouble."

"And from my experience, that will put both of them in jeopardy. Care for others and they become your weakness!"

"...But isn't that exactly the point?"

"What? What do you mean?"

"Tell me, why do you train in the gravity room?"

"Because it forces you to use more effort to do the same work. And that helps you to build up your strength."

"In another word, in order to become stronger, you let the gravity room makes you WEAK."

"Nonsense!" 


	12. Chapter 12

The Battle of the Scientists

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ. I've told you!

Chapter 12 - A break before

.1

For the next 30 minutes, Bulma gave Videl an account of the events leading up to the attacks tonight, having most of the details cut out. Surprisingly, when facing the revelation that Gohan was the one who defeated Cell, the girl accepted it without a single question, as if she knew it all along.

"So what do you think of Gohan?"

"I think he is very gentle and shy. But others think he is a..."

"A nerd."

"Yes. And it is very difficult to think of him as a martial artist, let alone one being this powerful."

"To us, it is exactly the opposite."

The two laughed at this, both feeling that they still had much to learn from each other. Being Bulma, there was a question that she had to ask.

"Do you like him?"

"Wha-what are you talking about?"

Shocked by the question, Videl blushed against her own will but yet completely in line with her role in this fan fic.

"Well?"

"Well...we-we are just friends."

"That's great!" Bulma said with a grin.

"But I said we are just friends!"

"I'm happy that you are willing to be Gohan's friend after learning all that. Or do you want to be more than just friends?"

"No way! I..I.."

"Well, I'll let you off this time. If you want to know more about storys that I told you, you can ask Gohan. He took a major part in most of them."

Bulma giggled as she made a mental note to tell Chichi about this. She knew Chichi wasn't happy with Gohan having a girlfriend, fearing that having a relation might harm his study. But now if the girlfriend was Videl then she was sure that Chichi would be screaming about grandbabies and start planning the wedding right away. And while Bulma started daydreaming about this, Videl noticed the time and realized that three hours had passed since she received the call from the police.

"Can I see him? I want to say goodbye before I go."

"You are going so soon? Why don't you stay for dinner? Chichi is cooking right now."

"Um, no thanks. Normally a police call only takes me about an hour to sort out and it is nearly three hours now. Daddy will get worried if I don't return soon."

"Are you sure? Chichi's cooking is really great."

"I know. Sometimes I get to taste Chichi's cooking when Gohan shares his lunch."

"He shares his lunch with you? How romantic!"

"Bulma!" The blushing returned.

"Ok ok. Oh, we will also have a meeting after dinner to discuss our situation. Do you want to join us?"

Through their talk, Bulma recognised the girl's analytical skill, a talent which someone with a less capable brain would have named as sixth sense, woman's intuition or luck. So it was only natural that Bulma wanted her to be part of the team. In the other hand, Videl was presently surprised that Bulma would let her join their meeting, after all they hardly knew each other.

"I'm honoured! But can I join your meeting remotely from my home?"

"Yes, actually I do have something that can work."

The scientist went out of the room and after a few minutes returned with what appears to be a mobile phone in her hand.

"Just press this button and it will connect directly to our system."

"Is it safe?"

"The connection is secured with our latest technology so don't worry about people tapping into the line."

"What about those bugs? They may eavesdrop our conversation."

"I know this house is clear but yours may not. So if you want to say something sensitive, you can instead key in a message and send it over."

"OK, I'll wait for your call."

"Then let me take you to Gohan. I want to check up on him as well."

"Thanks Bulma."

"You are welcome."

.2

When they arrived at the room which housed the healing tank, they found Vegeta there, filling the room with silence.

"Vegeta, what are you doing here?"

Ignoring his wife's question, Vegeta simply left.

"Hi Gohan, how are you doing?" Bulma asked casually, ignoring her husband's behaviour. The boy similarly ignored the Saiyan prince as well and explained his current condition.

"I can ask my dad to set up some instruments so that we can operate on you while you are staying inside the tank."

"Can you? That will be great."

"Don't put too much hope. It may take a while."

"That's fine by me. Videl, how about you? Are you OK?"

"Oh, I'm fine, Gohan. Thanks for saving me."

"Wow Gohan, you really do care about Videl, don't you?"

"Bulma! What are you talking about? We are just friends." Gohan said with shocked eyes. Bulma laughed at Gohan's reply, for it was exactly the same as the one given by Videl. Gohan fortunate that the healing fluid was blue and so no one could see the blushing on his face. Videl did not have such luxury however and she turned away to hide her face, only to draw more attention to herself.

"I'm asking because I don't quite remember what happened after I was hurt. Were there more androids?"

"Yes, there were more and Vegeta took care of them. But we are not so sure about the Lookout."

"I can sense Piccalo and the others, so they should be fine."

"Yes, that's what Trunks and Goten said. But are you sure you don't remember what happened afterwards?"

"No, I don't remember. Did something happen?"

"What? You mean you don't remember?"

"What is it? Tell me!"

"You two kissed!"

"WHAT? Did we really-"

"NO! WE DID NOT! Don't you listen to what Bulma just said."

"Hey Bulma, that is not funny!"

"Ok, I'm sorry." Bulma apologised.

"By the way, Videl, did anyone treat my wounds before I got in the healing tank?"

"Why-why do you ask?"

The girl blushed, recalling the way she took care of Gohan. And looking at him inside the tank, she blushed even more when she suddenly realized that Gohan was just wearing his pants and his upper body was completely naked in plain view. She mentally screamed herself to cool off and tried desperately to take her eyes off the boy's bare chest. This time, the coloured liquid helped by refracting the lights so that the muscles did not look as well defined as they really were.

"I has a feeling that I received some treatment on my way back, but it only worsen my condition."

"Really? I-I don't remember anyone treating your wounds." Videl went pale as she lied, just as quick as she could blush.

"Oh, never mind. Did they tell you anything?"

"Yes, they told me many great things and I wish to learn more, but it is getting late and I want to make sure you are fine before I go home."

"You are going home? Please don't go! It is dangerous out there!"

"Not really. Since the androids had failed, I doubt who ever controlling them can recover and organise another attack this quickly. And I don't want my dad to worry about me."

"Bulma, can you ask her to stay?"

"No, Videl is right. But don't worry, I gave her a phone that can reach us directly and she will be using it to join our meeting tonight."

"Oh well, Videl, please be careful. Don't hesitate to run from danger."

"Yes, Gohan, I will." And with that, Videl went home contemplating all the new information she gained.

.3

"Daddy, I'm home." Videl said as she entered from the front door. Then she walked straight to the dining table and sat down next to it, completely exhausted from her adventures. Her dad already had dinner and was now sitting on the sofa and watching TV.

"Sweet pea, what took you so long? I'm getting worried." Mr Satan asked as he turned round from his spot.

"Oh, it's nothing."

"Videl, I hope you're not meeting a boy behind my back. You know what I say about boyfriend."

"No, I'm not going out with Gohan!" Videl said without thinking. Then her eyes widened as she realized her error and tried to think up some excuses. But then her thought was sided tracked and now she was thinking why on earth would she equate boyfriend with Gohan.

"Who's Gohan?" Mr Satan asked with alarm.

"He is one of my classmates. He is a new to our school and some how people started saying we are a couple."

"Is that all?"

"Yes, we are just friends. It's just this case is much more complicated than a simple robbery so I stayed behind to help with the investigation."

"Just leave the investigation to the cops. You don't have to baby-sit them."

"Ok ok, but I missed dinner and I'm really hungry now. Can I have something to eat first?"

Immediately Mr Satan called for a housemaid and ordered some food. Then he lost interest and turned his attention back to the TV, which was showing a movie titled "Cell Game VI - Return of Mr Satan". Videl, now freed from her father, went to the kitchen and asked for the food to be delivered to her room. Soon the food arrived and was consumed quickly, waiting eagerly for the phone call from Bulma.


	13. Chapter 13

The Battle of the Scientists

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the DBZ characters.

Chapter 13 - Talk at CC 2

.1

"Woman, what are these two monitors doing on the table?"

"Can't you see? That one on the left is connected to Gohan in the healing tank."

"What about the other one?" Vegeta pointed to the monitor which was showing a black screen with the words "Sound only" at the centre. Videl's voice can be heard coming from the speakers mounted on top the monitor and sometimes it would display a text message accompanied by a robotic voice instead. Currently she was having a conversation with Gohan.

"That one is connected to a mobile phone that I gave to Videl."

"Videl? That idiot's daughter? Why is she joining this meeting?"

"Vegeta! She can hear us!"

"Hm, so what? What I said is true. Now tell me why is she joining?"

"Because I invited her. She is Gohan's friend and she is very intelligent. I think she can help us."

"Thanks Bulma." Videl said.

"So she is Gohan's mate. Fine." Vegeta was satisfied with that knowledge.

"Mate?" Both Bulma and Gohan shouted.

"No! I'm not his mate!"

"Grandbabies!"

"Mom!"

.2

So after much embarrassment to the two teenagers, Bulma, Chichi and Vegeta finally settled into their seats around the dining table with two monitors placed on top of it. "Bulma, did you say building those bugs requires some unique technology?" Videl asked.

"Yes, and we are suspecting that the inventor of the technology is the mastermind behind the attacks tonight."

"Can we give him a codename before we find out his true identity? It will be easier for us when we are refering to him."

"Sure, how about... Dr Pants?"

"Woman, that codename is stupid!" Vegeta snapped, as Bulma's suggestion triggered his suppressed distaste of his son's name - and his bad mood tonight didn't help either.

"What? Can you do any better?"

"Of course... Dr Potata."

"What kind of name is that?"

"At least it is better than yours."

"Is not."

"It is."

"Is not!"

"It is!"

"SHUT UP!" Chichi shouted as she took out her frying pan. Clearly annoyed by their bickering on such trivial topic. Every one froze on the spot and didn't dare to make a sound.

"The codename is Dr Bad. Everyone got it?"

Every one nodded.

"Good. Well now Videl?"

"...Yes, Chichi?"

"Please continue."

"Thanks Chichi. So Bulma, have you seen this technology any where else before?"

"No, I haven't. But I haven't show it to my dad yet. I wasn't able to hack into certain parts of the bug until recently. I can ask him to night."

"Do you think he can help"

"He knows more obscure scientists and their projects than I do."

"Then that will be great. Anyway, that means the technology is developed in secret or it is not widely known."

"That's right. Scientists usually keep to themselves until they have something to shock the world."

"But being able to build spying bugs are hardly shocking."

"Building those bugs are just applying the technology to military uses. That technology can actually be used in many other areas."

"So given the military nature of its application, is it safe to assume that Dr Gero and Dr Bad first met each other in the Red Ribbon Army?"

"Yes, working in a lab of a large organization is the most common way of getting familiar with fellow scientists." Bulma added, being the most knowledgeable about scientist affairs in the room.

"Hm, that is odd."

"About what?"

"What I don't understand is Dr Bad's motive. The bugs do not bare the Red Ribbon logo and Goku was killed in the Cell game, so avenging for Red Ribbon Army can't be Dr Bad's motive. Yet Dende said Dr Bad is likely to be driven by hatred. So where does Dr Bad's hatred point to?"

"It is fruitless to dwell on that. There are better things to discuss." Vegeta replied, knowing very well that a person with a twisted mind of this calibre could not be easily decoded.

"Yes, lets talk about the attacks tonight." Gohan agreed, since he was more familiar with fighting in the battlefield than finding out what was in the heart of a villain.

"From Vegeta's account, Dr Bad sent out over one hundred androids tonight and they were equipped with some sort of trapping force field which could cause serious damage when combined with their built-in bomb." Bulma reported.

"So Dr Bad is improving the androids?" The demi-Saiyan asked.

"In terms of battle power, they are still much weaker than Vegeta. But I'm not sure whether they have some other secret weapons or not. I need a specimen in order to do so."

"I will go, I know where the battle took place. I can go there tomorrow morning and collect some wreckage." Videl volunteered.

"But don't you have school tomorrow?" Chichi asked.

"Yes, but-"

"No, young lady, school is more important."

"But..."

"Ok, I'll go. It should be easy to find that place." Bulma offered.

"No, I'll go. Your duty is in the lab." Vegeta said.

"Thanks Bulma, thanks Vegeta."

"Now that they have attacked, can we trace them back to their base?" Gohan asked.

"Once I have one of the androids, I may be able to get inside the navigation system and trace back the path which they followed."

"Don't you have a radar that can detect androids?" Videl asked.

"We have a special radar here but the range isn't far enough."

"With over one hundred of them flying in the sky, they might show up on some powerful radars or satellites beside ours."

"I think only the army has such a surveillance network. But I doubt Dr Bad would be so careless about the army. He must have some means of getting the androids through their radar network without alerting them."

"Bulma, can you hack into their system?" Videl suggested, and the word "illegal" didn't cross her mind for some reason.

"I'll try. But from what I've heard, their system is not linked to the outside. So don't expect too much from this direction."

"What else do we learn from the attacks tonight?" Gohan asked.

"Not much, except that Dr Bad's base must be pretty big to house all those androids." Bulma replied.

"And don't forget Dr Bad used my link with the police to lure you out, so he knows you are the Great Saiyanman and probably many other secrets about you guys."

"So what are we going to do?" Gohan asked, reversing his usual role of the one being interrogated.

.3

So it was decided the first thing to do in the morning was that Bulma would show the bug's structure to her dad and ask for his opinion. Then she would ask him to install some surgery apparatus inside the healing tank. After this, she would search for any radar or satellite, including those of the army, which might have detected the androids. Mean while Vegeta would go out to collect the broken androids and Bulma would immediately work on them once he returned. Chichi would call the school to notify the teachers about Gohan's absent.

"What about me?" The girl asked.

"Videl, you can go to school like normal. You can also answer any calls from the police, but don't expect Gohan's help, so be careful. After school, you can come here and we will have another meeting. Is that alright?" Bulma replied.

"Yes." Videl answered with a sigh, a bit disappointed at the lack of exciting missions.

"Don't be like that my girl, I have a very important task for you. Only you can do it." Chichi suggested.

"Really? What is it?" Videl asked with a renewed spirit.

"Can you collect any handout and homework for Gohan as well?"

"Yes Chichi." Videl said dejectedly.

.4

So after Videl put down the phone, she went to her bed and switched off the lights, hoping to get some rest after the busy night. However tonight's experience had left her much excited and she couldn't fall asleep after much toasts and turns. No matter having her eyes closed or having them staring into the darkness, her vision was filled with images of Gohan. Some with him being healthy, some with him being injured, some with plain clothes, some with the Great Saiyaman outfit and some with no clo-

"No! Stop!" The girl realized and screamed in her head, pulling her sheet over her blushing face even though no one was watching.

Shaking her head, she had much to think about. Many questions about Gohan, Great Saiyaman and Golden Fighter were answered, yet she still wanted to know more about them, just like how a Saiyan couldn't stop eating after the first bite until the stomach was completely full. And the mystery surrounding the androids and the bugs only deepened her hunger for the truth.

"How does Gohan transform into Great Saiyaman? When I saw him as Great Saiyaman, he wasn't carrying any backpack or bag to hold his clothes... Then how does he get dressed? And how does he undress... No! What is wrong with me? Not only was I hearing his voice in my head earlier, now I keep thinking about him! And not just thinking about him, but thinking about him without any clothes... Arrrrggggghhhhh!" 


	14. Chapter 14

The Battle of the Scientists

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the DBZ characters.

Chapter 14 - Counter prank

.1

So this was the plan. These were the four steps the last living full blood Saiyan had to do to have his meal on time. Just go there early, retrieve enough android pieces, destroy the rest just in case and return before breakfast. Simple, right? And at 4:52 am, Vegeta arrived only to find out how wrong he was.

With the dim morning light, Vegeta's eyes widened at the sight in front of him. Covering most of the area where he fought the androids last night, there was a large junk yard filled with piles of broken electrical appliances, machines and vehicles. It would take him months to find all the android pieces from the mountain of mechanical trash, no way he could get his breakfast on time.

"No, at this rate not even lunch..."

Not wanting to make it even longer, he started the work immediately. It was 10:30 when the prince finally collected enough android pieces, long passed his breakfast time. His only consolation was the precious capsule in his pocket containing small amount(by his standard) of food. But once again, how wrong he was.

The poor Saiyan's face went pale when he opened the capsule, only to find one of the worst moments in his life. Instead of the food that he was expecting, there was a pile of textbooks - Gohan's textbooks.  
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

The sky darkened, the earth shook, the sea boiled, birds fled in fear and someone in Capsule Corp was rolling on the floor laughing.

.2

A few hours ago K

Seeing his dad ordered a robot to put some food into a capsule, Trunks knew this was a golden chance of pulling a prank and he quickly formulated one.

"Imagine the shock on his face when he find out that it is not food inside the capsule!" The boy muttered as he silently searched the house for something to replace the food with. As Gohan was in the healing tank at the moment, Trunks walked into his room and the pile of textbooks on the desk immediately caught the kid's eyes.

"Food for the mind." Trunks chuckled as grabbed the books and put them into a capsule without anyone seeing. Then he waited until the robot finished filling Vegeta's capsule and swapped the two while the robot went to clean up. Without delay, the boy ate the food and went to bed with a smile.

.3

After spending the night inside the healing tank, Gohan woke up with a much refreshed mind.

"No..." Gohan moaned as he realized that he would miss the lab section in school today. It was his favorite part of attending public school. When he was home schooling before, his mother would not let him do any science experiment at home and Bulma's lab was too far away so he loved the chance to do them in school. With nothing else better to do, he attempted to force out one of the shreds in his wounds with his ki. But as soon as he started, the intense pain returned and he had to stop after a few seconds. Then he rested for around twenty seconds and tried again. And as he expected, he had to stop again within seconds. Painful as it was, he kept trying and trying until one hour later the metal shred shot out from the wound and cracked the glass shield of the tank.

"Oops."

Just then, him mom walked in.

"Gohan!"

"I'm sorry! I won't do it again!"

"What?"

Then she noticed the cracked shield.

"Gohan, what happened?"

"...It cracked?"

"Hmm...never mind, Bulma will fix it."

"So mom, you want to see me?"

"Oh yes Gohan, have you seen your textbooks?"

"No mom, what about them?"

"Well, since you will be staying inside the healing tank for a while, I think you can spend some time on reading. I put them on your desk last night but now I can't find them. I asked everyone in the house and no one has seen them."

"YES!"

"Gohan! How can you say that!"

Chichi took out a frying pan and glared and her son immediately cowered. At this moment, Bulma walked into the room and instantly saw the frying pan in Chichi's hand. Shocked, she went up to them and saw the cracked glass shield.

"Chichi, what are you doing? Don't hit the healing tank with the frying pan!"

"No, Bulma, the crack is already there when I came."

"Oh, then Gohan, what happened?"

"...er...It was an accident." Gohan answered.

"Ok, I'll handle this later. Hey Chichi, Vegeta wants to see you."

"What does he want?" Chichi asked.

"I don't know, but he missed his breakfast this morning and he still wants to see you before eating. So I think it is pretty urgent. Do you want me to bring him here?"

"No, it's fine. Let's go."

.4

Trunks was playing with Goten in the living room when his father returned.

"Hi dad."

"Hm. Where is you mother?"

The older kid was shocked at the question - usually Vegeta would just shout for her instead of asking. He started to feel uneasy.

"Mom is in the lab. Is it about... the androids?"

"Yes, that and... breakfast." Vegeta answered with a smile and left, sending a shiver to his son.

"No way... Dad will be too busy explaining to Chichi about the textbooks to get me..." He murmured as he reassured himself.

Soon, Vegeta returned to the living room and waited on the couch and Chichi and Bulma arrived not long after.

"Chichi, I have a bad news. It is about you son's textbooks." Vegeta said and opened a capsule.

"NOOOO!" Chichi and Trunks screamed as both were horrified by the sight. All they could see was a pile of ash and burnt pages.

"What happened?" Chichi asked with anger clearly shown on her face.

"I thought it was my capsule with the training robots. I fired a ki ball as soon as I open the capsule when they weren t fully materialize yet so I didn t realize the textbooks were inside... I'm sorry." Vegeta apologized with heavy grief.

"But I didn't put them in a capsule!" Chichi screeched.

"Don't worry, I'll pay for a new set of textbooks. Gohan's education is very important." Vegeta said in a very out of character way.

"It s ok, Vegeta."

"Thanks. Now please excuse me." Vegeta said and went to the kitchen.

"Trunks, do you know something that we don't?" Bulma asked, noticing the shocked look on her son's face ever since he saw the remains of the textbooks.

"No." Trunks gulped.

"Are you sure? You do know what will happen when we find out the truth, don't you?" Bulma persisted.

"I didn't put them into his training robots capsule... it was his food capsule..." The kid answered.

"So it was you!" Chichi shouted.

"I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die..." Trunks muttered. Instead of facing a beating from his dad, he now had to face the wrath of Chichi and her frying pan. It was clear which was worse.

"Bulma, may I?" Chichi asked.

"Be my guest."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

The sky was clear, the earth was still, the sea was calm, birds sung in peace and someone in Capsule Corp was rolling on the floor laughing. 


End file.
